SPOTLIGHT:

JAPAN’S PRIVATE SHORTWAVE STATION

(This post is an edited version of an article I wrote for "The World of Shortwave Listening" column of The Spectrum Monitor magazine - December 2020 issue. Further details on this excellent publication are available at www.thespectrummonitor.com)

In North America, the concept of a private broadcaster operating on the shortwave bands is nothing new. Listeners in the U.S. have plenty of options with WRMI (Okeechobee, FL), WWCR (Nashville, TN), WBCQ (Monticello, ME), and the long-time WINB (Red Lion, PA) are just some of the many operators that spring to mind. And many long-time listeners will recall WNYW and KGEI having closed down decades ago. In Canada, CFRX (Toronto, ON) and CFVP (Calgary, AB) are still heard with shortwave relays of their AM outlets CFRB and CKMX respectively.

But in this era of shortwave closures, it is remarkable that Japan’s only private commercial shortwave broadcaster, Radio Nikkei, is still on the air. And while the station now employs Internet streaming of its broadcasts, and has its mobile app and podcasts of some of its programs, the station is still exclusively a shortwave-only broadcaster.

Initially known as the Nihon Shortwave Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (NSB), the first broadcast took place on August 27, 1954, using two frequencies: 3925 kHz (JOZ - still in use today) and 6095 kHz (JOZ2) with 5 kW. Within two years, power was increased to 10 kW. Then in 1961, NSB again bumped up its transmitter power, this time to 50 kW, enabling broadcasts to be heard right across most of the Japanese archipelago. In those early days, the station programmed a wide variety of world music styles, interspersed with stock market reports, investment news, horse racing and baseball broadcasts, medical information and news. Similar programming still exists today!

Early NSB QSL from 1971

With a focus firmly on its domestic audience, the station’s broadcasts are in almost entirely the Japanese language. Although its signals have been widely heard globally, Radio Nikkei has never courted international listenership. But in the ’70s and ’80s, there was one program where English could be heard. “Let’s Learn Japanese” was a 15-minute daily evening presentation, sponsored by the manufacturer Hitachi Corporation. Recently, I stumbled across an old reel-to-reel recording I made back in May 1973. Although the ravages of time have attacked the old tape, I managed to resurrect and clean up, as best I could, the recording of this program. I have uploaded it to YouTube, so check it out at https://youtu.be/rO0QRAKE7Yg.

In October 2003, the company implemented a name change from Nihon Shortwave Broadcasting Co. Ltd. to Nikkei Radio Broadcasting Corporation. Original station identification announcements referred to NSB, then changing to Radio Tampa in the 1990s before finally settling on the current station moniker of Radio Nikkei in April 2004. 60th-anniversary celebrations were held in August 2014.

The company’s principal shareholders are Nikkei Inc., which is a Japanese economics newspaper, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Current website information advises that there are 66 employees across the two offices in Tokyo and Osaka. The transmitter sites are at Nagara in the Chiba prefecture and Nemuro on the northern island of Hokkaido.

There are two Radio Nikkei program streams known as Nikkei 1 and Nikkei 2. Sign-on and sign-off times vary slightly depending on the day of the week.

Radio Nikkei 1:

3925 kHz (50 kW) 0750-1500 UTC and 2200-2300 UTC via Nemuro

6055 kHz (50 kW) 2200-1500 UTC via Nagara

9595 kHz (50 kW) - Currently inactive

Radio Nikkei 2:

3945 kHz (10 kW) 0950-1100 UTC via Nagara

6115 kHz (50 kW) 2330-100 UTC via Nagara

9760 kHz (50 kW) - Currently inactive

All broadcasts are in Japanese, although an English program can sometimes be heard on Wednesdays, designed for Japanese listeners to practice their English skills. And it is pleasing to see that Radio Nikkei still sends out QSL cards for correct reception reports.

73 and good DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW