Exchanging southern whisky - suffering irritation (9)

I believe the answer is:

switching

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'exchanging' is the definition.
(switching is a kind of exchanging)

'southern whisky suffering irritation' is the wordplay.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'whisky' becomes 'W' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'suffering irritation' becomes 'itching' (I am not sure about the 'suffering' bit.).
's'+'w'+'itching'='SWITCHING'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for switching that I've seen before include "Changing over" , "Transferring to another track - or whipping" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app