triple j turns 50 this week — listen to its first day of broadcast on Double J this Sunday.

 Extract from ABC News

Double J

Posted 18 hours ago

Early logos for 2JJ, or Double Jay as it was known, before it became triple j in the early 1980s.

Double J celebrates the 50th anniversary of triple j on January 19 with a special 12 hour rebroadcast of the first day of the station that started it all — 2JJ, Double Jay Rock!

triple j's story began at 11am on January 19, 1975 in studio 206 at the ABC in Sydney. 

Holger Brockmann was the first announcer on 2JJ, and will return this weekend to celebrate its 50th birthday.(ABC Archives)

Beaming out across the city on 1540Khz was the banned Skyhooks song 'You Just Like Be 'Cos I'm Good In Bed' and behind the mic was former 2SM DJ Holger Brockmann.

Holger will join us on the 50th anniversary to introduce and provide context for this historic replay. You'll also hear the first shifts from Chris Winter, Ivan Walker, Graham Berry and Bob Hudson, as well as comedy skits, news bulletins, surf reports, live concerts and more.

YouTube Double Jay's first moments on air

Double Jay was Australia's first non-commercial, 24-hour rock radio station for young people. It played the music that commercial stations ignored and gave prominence to the youth culture and issues that were important in the lives of 18–25-year-olds in the mid to late 70s.

"Once Double Jay came along, you could hear the music you liked, you could hear people talking about the issues that mattered to you, and you could feel like you were part of a community that shared these common views," former Double Jay presenter Keri Phillips says.

"Young people said, 'We have a voice now. We have someone who's speaking in our language about things we're about'."

Gayle Austin was one of the founding staff at 2JJ and is regarded as Australia's first female rock radio DJ. 

"Young people of that time had learnt that you don't have to bow down to the ideas of people from a generation before," the station's founding co-ordinator Marius Webb told us back in 2015. "We gave that feeling a voice."

To pay tribute to the birth of triple j and this milestone moment in Australian media we've dug back into the ABC archives to replay highlights of the first 24 hours of 2JJ.

It will be like listening to a rebellious and risk-taking station again, in real time, as it sounded when it went to air exactly 50 years ago.

Listen to it unfold on Sunday January 19 to Double J from 11am to 11pm, with a special simulcast on triple j for a couple of hours from 11am.

Double J is on DAB+ digital radio, Channel 200 on your TV and the on the ABC listen and triple j apps or your home smart speaker.