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Japan to turn off AM's, except for Public Broadcaster NHK

A

alok

May have been mentioned already,

Like has happened in Europe looks like the AM's in Japan are going to be gradually turning off, per info on Internet.

from Internet . . .

Since February, some commercial radio broadcasters have begun a trial suspension of AM radio, with a real possibility the pause will extend to a permanent discontinuation across the country as broadcasters look to cut costs.
Only broadcaster there not doing it is Public Broadcaster, NHK, some AM's will be switched to FM or, encouraged to go on the Internet.

Also I posted under INTERNATIONAL RADIO - EUROPE, here on the radio-discussion site that,

story of some European electric car makers not putting radios in cars​

 
alok said:
May have been mentioned already,

Like has happened in Europe looks like the AM's in Japan are going to be gradually turning off, per info on Internet.

from Internet . . .

Since February, some commercial radio broadcasters have begun a trial suspension of AM radio, with a real possibility the pause will extend to a permanent discontinuation across the country as broadcasters look to cut costs.
Only broadcaster there not doing it is Public Broadcaster, NHK, some AM's will be switched to FM or, encouraged to go on the Internet.

Also I posted under INTERNATIONAL RADIO - EUROPE, here on the radio-discussion site that,

story of some European electric car makers not putting radios in cars​

Click to expand...
I'm frankly surprised you aren't screaming bloody murder that the Japanese government is putting their citizen's lives at risk in the event of a natural disaster given the wonderful service AM radio provides during an emergency.
But there again, if nobody is listening...
 
Don't forget, Japan also expanded their FM band and did a massive marketing campaign for the new radios and yes, all of the new cars coming out have the expanded band radios. That expansion added 5 MHz (90~95) to the band and they still have possibly more room for growth beyond that.
 
Michi said:
Don't forget, Japan also expanded their FM band and did a massive marketing campaign for the new radios and yes, all of the new cars coming out have the expanded band radios. That expansion added 5 MHz (90~95) to the band and they still have possibly more room for growth beyond that.
Click to expand...
Given the dominance of smartphone use in Asia, it will be interesting to see if younger consumers even notice, let alone care.
 
Kelly A said:
I'm frankly surprised you aren't screaming bloody murder that the Japanese government is putting their citizen's lives at risk in the event of a natural disaster given the wonderful service AM radio provides during an emergency.
But there again, if nobody is listening...
Click to expand...
. . . note that Michi (above) mentioned that the Japanese gov. in Japan expanded the FM band and did things to help broadcast radio . . . you would think that our U.S. government would find a better band for AM stations to move to and help the AM stations - but no.

Here ya go . . . what is going to happen in a major event is in most cases your Smartphone will tell you "the craps gonna hit the fan" and afterwards "regular old fashion broadcasting" will keep you informed as the cell system is repaired.
Keep those fresh batteries in that old radio.

In otherwords, the cell phone will tell you to take cover . . . regular broadcasters will tell you how to get things back in order and what is going on.

Come on Kelly A we all know you just went out and got new batteries for that old Emerson 8 transistor radio you got in that hall closet up on the top shelf . . . you know that deep inside you love that old radio.

*****

Kelly A, how is the family in Japan after that earthquake months back?

I hope they are doing well.

Take Care.
 
alok said:
. . . note that Michi (above) mentioned that the Japanese gov. in Japan expanded the FM band and did things to help broadcast radio . . . you would think that our U.S. government would find a better band for AM stations to move to and help the AM stations - but no.
Click to expand...
That's because our radio stations are owned by private and non-profit organizations, not the government.
alok said:
Kelly A, how is the family in Japan after that earthquake months back?
Click to expand...
My wife's family is good. What cell services that did go offline were all back the next day. Some areas with older buildings took more damage than other areas. That's pretty common.
 
alok said:
. . . you would think that our U.S. government would find a better band for AM stations to move to and help the AM stations - but no.
Click to expand...
It would take a long time for stations in a new band to build up listeners. The general public would have to buy new radio sets to pick up those stations.

Would the U.S. government sponsor a program to have manufactured and have distributed to the public at no charge such new radios or radio tuner converters in the same way that digital TV set top boxes were made available.

Not sure whether all of the space formerly occupied by U.S. channels 2 - 6 (54 - 88 MHz) has already been repurposed but some of that could become an expanded FM band. Those frequencies are just under the existing FM band so the same technology for building FM radios can be used for new expanded band radios.
 
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ajaynejr said:
It would take a long time for stations in a new band to build up listeners. The general public would have to buy new radio sets to pick up those stations.
Click to expand...
And that's a huge problem since the government doesn't subsidize commercial broadcasters. Given the slow adoption of HD radio (20+ years), could you imagine being out on an expanded-band island all alone broadcasting to nobody waiting for listeners who replace their vehicles or purposely purchase a new radio?
ajaynejr said:
Would the U.S. government sponsor a program to have manufactured and have distributed to the public at no charge such new radios or radio tuner converters in the same way that digital TV set top boxes were made available.
Click to expand...
That's an easy answer: No.
 
Japan also has a private shortwave broadcaster, Radio Nikkei, which operates two programming services. Both can be heard in the U.S. during early morning hours. The stations also stream; haven’t heard of any plans for them to drop shortwave, though they did cut some transmitters a few years ago.

Radio Nikkei - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
alok said:
. . . note that Michi (above) mentioned that the Japanese gov. in Japan expanded the FM band and did things to help broadcast radio . . . you would think that our U.S. government would find a better band for AM stations to move to and help the AM stations - but no.
Click to expand...
Docket 80-90 effectively killed any hope of that happening 40 years ago.
 
i can kinda see why NHK is keeping the government AMs.. super powers.. 200 to 500kw.. and when theres a natural disaster, they go to wall to wall coverage.. NHK 2's network goes english with anchors live translating tv coverage
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
i can kinda see why NHK is keeping the government AMs.. super powers.. 200 to 500kw.. and when theres a natural disaster, they go to wall to wall coverage.. NHK 2's network goes english with anchors live translating tv coverage
Click to expand...

It's not entirely true that NHK's two AM channels won't be affected. There has been a plan in place since 2021 to eliminate NHK Radio 2 altogether in NHK's fiscal year 2026, which begins in calender year 2025. Part of the reason is decreased use of terrestrial radio and increased use of internet streaming, but the biggest imputus is financial, with NHK being forced to cut expenses. In preparation for the closure, some of NHK Radio 2's programming over the past two years has been simulcast on or moved to NHK's longtime FM service. Other programming is expected to move to NHK Radio 1, which is to become known simply as NHK's AM service.

Two links (in Japanese, but Google translates them reasonably well, though some references to years are incorrect)
 
Kelly A said:
I'm frankly surprised you aren't screaming bloody murder that the Japanese government is putting their citizen's lives at risk in the event of a natural disaster given the wonderful service AM radio provides during an emergency.
But there again, if nobody is listening...
Click to expand...
And Japan is much more prone to natural disasters as it is smaller than the US and in huge earthquake and hurricane zones.

Ever seen a 300 meter TV or FM tower wiggle in an earthquake? (I should ask someone how the 1000 foot CBS tower did during the Northridge quake in 1994!)
 
DavidEduardo said:
And Japan is much more prone to natural disasters as it is smaller than the US and in huge earthquake and hurricane zones.
Click to expand...
True, and because natural disasters, primarily earthquakes, are much more common people already know what to do. The Japanese people have become very self-sufficient. When the you-know-what hits the fan, they don't curl up into a fetal position with their smartphone and wait for government help like folks in the West. Individually or as families, they roll up their sleeves and solve the problem.
 
Kelly A said:
True, and because natural disasters, primarily earthquakes, are much more common people already know what to do. The Japanese people have become very self-sufficient. When the you-know-what hits the fan, they don't curl up into a fetal position with their smartphone and wait for government help like folks in the West. Individually or as families, they roll up their sleeves and solve the problem.
Click to expand...
And that is generally true in all nations where their government is not "big brother" stepping in for every perceived need.
 
It should also be noted that, for a variety of reasons, of all the industrialized nations, Japan has the least developed (or most stringently regulated) radio industry. Japan didn't institute commercial radio until after TV had already established itself in the 1960s and the Japanese government assigned far fewer frequencies per capita (eg. 9 commercial stations in the Tokyo metro, population 35 million). Because of this, generally speaking there are no "formats" in Japan, the commercial stations are still largely block programmed the way most American stations were prior to the mid 50s. Add to that the unique location of the FM dial (76-90 MHz) which renders foreign receivers mostly useless, plus the density of the population and high usage of mass transit (and less in-car listening) and you wind up with radio usage that is far lower than its Western counterparts - even 15 years ago, less than 40% of the population listened to the radio at least once per week. (Source: ejcjs - Radio and Television Consumption in Japan: A Trilateral Intercultural Comparison with the UK and Germany).
 
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How is digital radio faring in Japan? Is it closer to the UK's highly successful DAB radio or HD radio's weak reception in the U.S. ?
 
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