J-Wave

J-Wave

J-Wave

Radio station in Tokyo

For the J wave on an ECG, see Osborn 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, including J-pop, C-pop and Western 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]

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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.[citation needed] 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 in the FM band on 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.

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.

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.

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

Programs

Tokio Hot 100

J-WAVE publishes the Tokyo Hot 100 singles chart which is compiled from Billboard Japan data: data for each music streaming service, download data, number of video views, CD sales data, number of tweets on Twitter.[4] 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. [1]
    Condry, Ian (2006). Hip-hop Japan. Duke University Press. p. 175. ISBN 0-8223-3892-0.
  2. [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. [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. [4]
    "Tokio Hot 100". J-Wave (in Japanese). Billboard Japan. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  5. [5]
    "オリコンランキング". ORICON NEWS.
  6. [6]
    "MTV×J-WAVE TOKIO HOT 100 | ON AIR | MTV JAPAN". 2013-09-29. Archived from the original on 2013-09-29. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
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