Triple J suffers embarrassing on-air blunder 

Triple J suffered an embarrassing gaffe this week after three minutes of dead air had technicians rushing to find out what went wrong. 

The sudden blip began in the middle of the day with viewers hearing one minute of a presenter singing, ‘I’m so sorry’, from I Miss You by Blink 182 to themselves.

As technicians quickly cut the presenter’s blunder from the airwaves, another two minutes of dead air followed, reported news.com.au on Tuesday.

While it’s unclear which program was interrupted by the gaffe, it was originally noticed by a Guardian reporter who joked it was ‘bloody good radio’. 

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to parent company ABC for comment. 

The national youth broadcaster had a rude awakening recently as the radio ratings last year showed a mass migration of listeners to easy-listening stations like WSFM and Smooth FM which target boomers and Gen-Xers.

The third survey of 2022, conducted by market research company GfK and covering the period of February 27 to April 2 and April 17 to May 21, revealed Triple J had dropped by 7.4 percentage points in its target demographic of 18 to 24-year-olds.

It secured just eight per cent of the youth market, which was a significant decline from its 20 per cent share two surveys ago when a huge number of people tuned in for the Hottest 100 countdown.

The sudden blip began in the middle of the day with viewers hearing one minute of a presenter singing, ‘I’m so sorry’, from I Miss You by Blink 182 to themselves. Pictured is Triple J lunch host Dave Woodhead

The latest survey results are said to be ‘indicative of a broader movement away from the station’, reported news.com.au, with the biggest drops affecting the 9am-12pm morning show (down 1.9 per cent) and 12pm-4pm workdays (down 2.7 per cent).

At first glance, the data appears to suggest Triple J is losing listeners to the likes of WSFM and Smooth FM, which target people over the age of 35 and are known for playing top-40 hits from yesteryear with a focus on Aussie rock and ’80s music.

This migration may not be bad news for the ABC-owned youth station, however.

Triple J made it clear during its ‘generational shift’ relaunch in 2019 – which saw several popular hosts including Gen Fricker and Tom Tilley replaced by young upstarts – that it was ‘ruthlessly’ targeting 18 to 24-year-olds only.

As technicians quickly cut the presenter’s blunder from the airwaves, another two minutes of dead air followed, reported news.com.au on Tuesday. Pictured is Triple J breakfast host Concetta Caristo