Triple J launches new Unearthed radio station in Australia

Australia's Triple J has launched a new radio station.

Unearthed, which started out as a band competition in the 1990s and subsequently became a music sharing website, went live on air on Thursday and will play only Australian music, including unsigned and independent bands, for 24 hours a day.

Triple J was responsible for discovering acts such as Megan Washington, Grinspoon and Missy Higgins, while Unearthed recently launched the career of Sydney band the Jezabels.

The Herald Sun reports that Higgins, who recently returned to Melbourne after making her third album in Nashville, helped launch the new station and even played a demo that she sent to Triple J about ten years ago.

Unearthed can currently be heard via an iPhone app, streamed on triplejunearthed.com or on digital radio.

When the launch of Unearthed radio was announced earlier this year, station manager Chris Scaddan said: "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."

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: