J-Wave

J-Wave is a commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasting on 81.3 FM from the Tokyo Skytree to the Tokyo area. J-Wave airs mostly music, covering a wide range of formats. The station is considered the most popular among FM broadcasts in Tokyo,[1] and has surprised the radio broadcast industry by gaining a higher popularity rate than an AM station (JOQR) in a survey conducted in June 2008.[2] J-Wave was founded in October 1988 with the callsign of JOAV-FM. It is a member station of the Japan FM League (JFL) commercial radio network.[3]

For the J wave on an ECG, see Osborn wave.
JOAV-FM
Broadcast areaGreater Tokyo Area
Frequency81.3 MHz
Branding81.3 J-Wave
Programming
Language(s)Japanese
FormatJ-pop/CHR
AffiliationsJapan FM League
Ownership
OwnerJ-Wave Inc. (owned by Credit Saison, Nippon Broadcasting System, Kyodo News, and other stakeholders)
History
First air date
August 1, 1988 (1988-08-01)
Call sign meaning
J-WAVE
Technical information
ERP57,000 watts
HAAT632.2 meters
Transmitter coordinates
35°42′35.93″N 139°48′38.35″E
Repeater(s)Minato 88.3 MHz
Links
WebcastJ-Wave on radiko
J-Wave on Ustream
Websitewww.j-wave.co.jp

Features

J-WAVE's slogan is "The Best Music on the Planet." The DJs are known as "navigators" (ナビゲーター, nabigētā). The music format can be considered a Japanese equivalent of the Western concept of Top 40 or CHR radio.

Hundreds of different jingles separate programs from commercials; they are generally played at the same decibel level and are variations on a single melody. J-Wave has been broadcast via satellite since 1994 and some of its programs also air on some community radio stations in Japan.

History

On December 10, 1987, J-WAVE was incorporated and started test broadcasts on the FM band at 81.3 MHz on August 1, 1988. On October 1 of that year at 5:00 a.m., it started transmission from Tokyo Tower. J-Wave was the 27th FM radio station nationwide to launch at that time, and the second in Tokyo. The name ”J-WAVE” originally derived from a record shop WAVE in Roppongi, which also belonged to "Saison Group". While other radio stations focused more on presentation, J-WAVE adopted a "more music less talk" format. The station had a large fanbase because of its unusual programming style, playing music non-stop except for jingles and breaks for news, traffic and weather. The law in Japan at that time stipulated that programming had to be maximum 80% music, and minimum 20% talk and continuity. J-WAVE coined the term "J-pop", which is only vaguely defined but led to the eventual mirror term, K-pop. However, as the years went by, the station lost influence. Sponsor after sponsor pulled their ads because of the growing irrelevance of the programming to what they were selling.

Around 1995, J-WAVE hired new personalities in an attempt to rejuvenate itself. Its term "J-POP" became synonymous with commercially palatable Japanese music from across the spectrum, except for traditional Japanese music. Specials started to air around this time, and the station took steps to attract a listener base desirable for higher ad revenues. The format J-WAVE introduced to Japan, "more music less talk" almost disappeared during reorganization in early 1997, when DJ banter became more pronounced.

On October 1, 2003, J-WAVE moved its head office to the 33rd floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Minato, Tokyo. On April 23, 2012, J-WAVE moved its transmitting station at Tokyo Tower to the Tokyo Sky Tree with new transmission power of 7 kilowatts with an ERP of 57 kilowatts. Before the move, the transmission power was 10 kilowatts with an ERP of 44 kilowatts.

Today, J-WAVE has changed dramatically since its first broadcast. The station acquired a solid listener base who were less interested in a pretense of social rebellion. Nonetheless, J-Wave has never hit the No. 1 rank in ratings in the last ten years in the Tokyo region.

(1988-1993) Popular Navigators with "obis", or daily shows, on J-Wave include:

Programs

Tokio Hot 100
Main article: Tokio Hot 100

J-WAVE has set up its own airplay charts,[4] which tallies the songs were played the most during that week on its own station. Note: These should not be confused with the Japanese single charts, Oricon, which has its own national airplay charts.[5]

There is also a TV version shown on MTV Japan.[6]

Others

Song of the year (Slam Jam)

Notes
  1. Condry, Ian (2006). Hip-hop Japan. Duke University Press. p. 175. ISBN 0-8223-3892-0.
  2. "J-Wave has drawn considerable attention in the industry with the 'phenomenal overtaking by an FM station of AM'", reported ZAKZAK, an internet news branch of Sankei Digital on 2008-07-23. It said that J-Wave ranked fourth with 0.9% share, overtaking Nippon Cultural Broadcasting (0.8%).(in Japanese) Archived 2009-04-03 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Kuniko Watenabe; Yuko Tsuchiya (2008). "Japan". In Indrajit Banerjee; Stephen Logan (eds.). Asian Communication Handbook 2008. AMIC. p. 240. ISBN 978-981-4136-10-5.
  4. "81.3 FM RADIO". TOKIO HOT100 : J-WAVE 81.3 FM RADIO.
  5. "オリコンランキング". ORICON NEWS.
  6. http://www.mtvjapan.com/tv/program/rg_tokiohot100
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