Here’s what’s happening on Australia’s beloved non-comm Alternative network, Triple-J:

Tame Impala, Amy Shark, and six other artists have uploaded samples and loops for listeners to make their own songs as part of the station’s “Triple-J Unearthed DIY Supergroup” promotion, tied to the station’s on-line new music side channel. You can already hear the best of the first week’s contenders.

In the absence of live music, something that is a trademark of the station (“we know, it sucks,” says a promo), the station’s archives have been tapped for the network’s “Live at the Wireless” playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.

When I heard Lucy Smith in middays (or, as they were described on the station, “mornings,” to differentiate them from “breakfast”), she was playing Peking Duk’s “High” and soliciting listener comments about the early 2010s indie/dance anthem, reminiscent of MGMT’s “Electric Feel.” “It was the song that got me in to Triple-J,” said one listener. Another remembered crowd-surfing to it at a festival. “High” is Triple-J’s No. 32 song of the decade. These weren’t just texts being solicited for a bit. They were being collected for an episode of the station’s “Inspired” podcast series.

It felt like there was a lot happening on Triple-J. Looking at the station’s homepage, it seemed as if Smith had talked about everything there over the course of an hour, and that was a lot to talk about. There was a set of four Australian songs in a row as a crossplug for the local music show “Home And Hosed.” There was also news from the parent Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (New Zealand was already reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic; Australia was close to doing the same.)

I was asked by an Australian reader to take a Fresh Listen to Triple-J nearly a year ago. Like Christian AC KLTY Dallas, it seemed like one of those stations that had already been covered plenty. It says something about Triple-J’s longtime prominence among the world’s broadcast brands that when The Guardian did its own “virtual world tour” of international streaming choices for shut-in listeners; they went to Australian community radio in search of a deeper level of exotica.

I also wasn’t sure what I had to tell an Australian radio listener about Triple-J. Or if I needed to tell an Australian reader anything about the station. In Australia’s just-released second survey of the year, they have a 5.5 in Sydney, a 7.2 in Melbourne, and an 8.1 in Brisbane. (And in Sydney and Brisbane, they’re actually off slightly in this book.)

But Triple-J is still a great listen, and it’s still exotic if commercial broadcast radio is the benchmark. It parallels Alternative radio as it exists today in the U.S. in that the bulk of what it plays is quirky pop, not guitar rock. But if you hear an artist name  that is recognizable to a North American listener, other than Tame Impala, it’s likely to be an artist that Alternative here wouldn’t play—Kendrick Lamar, Rosalia & Ozuna, Stormzy, Miguel. The one artist I heard shared with Alt radio here is Post Malone.

Here’s Triple-J at 10:30 a.m. on April 28:

• Peking Duk, “High”
• DMas, “The Glow” – ‘80s-flavored; recalls “Space Age Love Song”
• Arlo Parks, “Eugene”
• Stormzy f/Headie One, “Audacity”
• Kali Uchis, “I Want War (BUT I NEED PEACE)” – sort of like Sade-gone-indie; part of a homemade EP cut since the pandemic began
• Woodes, “How Long I Wait”
• Allday, “OTT” (the beginning of the four song Australian set)
• Bec Sandridge, “High Tide” (the only thing that sounded like guitar rock over the course of the hour; sort of Fleetwood Mac-ish, but also ethereal)
• Kite String Tangle, “North”
• Lil Spacely, “No Excuses”
• Meg Mac, “Let It Happen” (from the station’s now-paused “Like A Version” feature of in-studio covers)
• Kevin Abstract, “Georgia”
• Reo Cragun, “Grown Men Don’t Cry”

Even in good times, most American broadcasters aren’t looking to the rest of the world for inspiration, particularly its successful public radio. “Be a big, well-funded non-commercial radio station” isn’t helpful advice, even for those inclined to take any examples from beyond our boundaries.

But the first applicable lesson reinforces something written about in this column several times in recent weeks. If there is any incentive for U.S. broadcasters to start thinking in terms of well-funded national brands as a replacement for strapped and heavily automated local outlets, it’s hearing Triple-J. It’s probably also not an accident that it was a national Alternative station, SiriusXM’s Alt Nation, that has done the most to reinvent the format domestically in the last 15 years.

Another is that it helps to have something to talk about on your radio station. Despite the difference in format, Triple-J reminded me of stations like KFRC San Francisco or WXKS (Kiss 108) Boston in the ‘80s, legendary for having multiple promotions and events simultaneously. And when I say that you will hear Triple-J talk about a half-dozen items on the station Website, I don’t mean teasers-only of the “here’s an interesting topic, read more about it on our site and tough luck if you can’t do that right now” variety.

Then there’s music advocacy. It’s a constant presence on this station. In an hour where I was familiar with perhaps two songs, I felt like I came away knowing something about most of them. (The station sold me four songs in the course of an hour, if you’re wondering.) It’s a reminder that many stations don’t talk enough about the music, even though it’s the thing they have that’s free (and often topical now). At some point, Triple-J did a “new music” hook promo with three new titles; it’s the only thing that sounded false on the station. Everything, really, was a new music promo.