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"The Booth"

C

CorporateSuit

If you have time, check out a Japanese DVD called "The Booth." It's a suspense/horror film that tells a story about a talk radio host in Tokyo who has to do his show from an old "haunted" studio while new studios are being built. Trouble is, many years ago, a previous host hung himself inside the studio while on the air.

Apart from the creepy story, it's a very interesting look into our industry on the other side of the Pacific. If true, they certainly use a lot more personnel: a board op, a director, an in-studio producer, call screener...

Here's the details if you want to check it out from KCLS...

http://catalog.kcls.org/search?/YTh...,364,364,B/frameset&FF=YThe Booth&SORT=D&1,1,
 
Truth is, many stations in the far east aren't very much different operations wise from American stations. Although some were even using crude voicetracking and automation - off vinyl 78's LONG before the very first IGMs were ever built.

Secondly, it is very rare to have call screeners there. Wheras some slob can call up and antagonize anybody on the air here, in Japan that is viewed as a taboo (it's a much more socially conservative society. Not backwards and ham-fisted like some of the more redneck areas, just more culturally traditional and polite in manners.) Albeit sometimes strange in our eyes...

Automation usually takes care of the board operating and much of the production is done ahead of time.

But many Japanese stations, even with all this technology (EVERYTHING is digital and run by microchips in Japan), they still have a surprisingly large amount of staff, much of it off-air. J-Wave, 81.3 FM has one of the biggest promotions departments I have even seen in one station. Which may explain why they are so internationally popular not just with Japanese ex-pats, but with J-Pop fans of every stripe around the world.

One particular DJ anomaly in Asia general that could get any jock tossed off the air here is many Asian jocks tend to talk over instrumental breaks in a song, no matter how short. Although this trend seems to be decreasing over time, you'll still find more medium and smaller market stations doing that.

One of my favorite Japenese stations (and a refreshing alternative on an easy going Sunday to KWJZ) is Shonan Beach FM 78.9 out of Hayama, Japan. Plays a wide and eclectic mix of smooth jazz, instrumental pop (with much talking over it) and vocal selections from the '50s to today with a handful of Japanese cuts thrown in. The vocal music is mostly in English as well as much of the station IDs, but the commercials and jocks all speak in Japanese. It kind of sounds like KEZX would have sounded if it were in Japan instead of Seattle...

http://43.244.255.28/BeachFM (Windows Media Player, 128kb Stereo)

Does the DVD have English sub-titles?
 
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