Triple J launches radio station for Aussie-only music

The ABC has launched a new radio station in Australia.

Triple J Unearthed, which started out as a band competition in the 1990s and became a music sharing website, will become an official digital radio station for unsigned and independent Aussie music acts later this year.

Unearthed was launched in Melbourne last night and will start broadcasting from October 5.

Station manager Chris Scaddan told The ABC: "The station itself will be very different to Triple J. There's no breakfast show, there's no drive show. [It is] very much going to be driven by the music, by the artists themselves and the community that surrounds Unearthed.

"We've just found there's such an abundance of fantastic Australian music - far more than we can possibly give airplay to on Triple J - that we need a whole new station dedicated to playing Australian music."

Scaddan spoke about the history of the original competition, adding: "People talk a lot about artists such as Grinspoon, Missy Higgins, Killing Heidi who were all discovered in early days of Unearthed.

"More recently because it's online, it means that all the music that's submitted to Unearthed is available for everybody to listen. So we've had even more bands and artists coming through who have been able to get that first kick in their career."

Triple J is famous for its annual 'Top 100 songs' chart, which was won this year by Angus and Julia Stone's 'Big Jet Plane'. The Stones later won the APRA award for 'Songwriter of the Year'.

Watch a promotional video for Triple J Unearthed below: