Here is a rundown of the special programming and other schedule changes we have planned to celebrate the holiday season as well as J1’s 500th music chart:

KOHAKU PREVIEW
This show will feature all of the JPOP artists who have been invited to this year’s NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen.  J1 will take each artist and total the scores that their singles have achieved in 2010 and give each artist a score. The scores are then totaled up for the red team (for female artists) and the white team (for male artists).  Last year, while the white team won the big Kohaku Uta Gassen, the women in red won our Kohaku preview.  Will the laides win again this year? 
PST Friday December 17, 9:00PM~11:00PM / JST Saturday 18, 14:00~16:00
(replay) PST Sunday December 19, 12:00PM~2:00PM / JST Monday December 20, 00:00~02:00

J1 GOES ALL X’MAS
On X’mas Day, join J1 for 27 hours of continuious Japanese X’mas music from our JPOP format as well as from our former anime format. 
PST Friday December 24, 3:00PM~Saturday December 25, 6:00PM.
JST Saturday December 25, 8:00AM~Sunday December 26, 11:00AM. 

THE NIGHT OF RED AND WHITE
J1’s annual New Year’s Eve show featuring the artists and when possible, the songs that will be heard on the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen.
PST Friday December 31, 2:30AM~7:00AM / JST Friday December 31, 19:30~Midnight
(Replay) PST Friday December 31, 7:30PM~Midnight / JST Saturday January 1, 12:30~16:00

THE J1 TOP 100 OF THE YEAR
Join Michi-chan as she counts down the 100 hottest songs in Japan over a 53 week chart period.  The Top 100 will air immediately after each presentation of the Night of Red and White.
PST Friday December 31, 7:00AM~7:30PM / JST Saturday Midnight~12:30
(Replay) PST Saturday January 1, Midnight~12:30PM / JST Saturday January 1, 16:00~04:30 (Sunday).

J1 TOP 500 SONGS OF ALL TIME
A week long celebration of J1’s 500th music chart.  Each day, J1 will count down 100 songs from #500 to #1.  The show will be aired during each broadcast region’s “9 to 5 Challenge” period. 
Monday January 3 to Friday January 7:
8AM to 4PM PST / 11AM to 7PM EST
9AM to 5PM JST / 8AM to 4PM ACT
9AM to 5PM CET / 8AM to 4PM GMT

For more information, see the J1 schedule:
http://en.j1fm.com/timetable.

NHK has announced the artists who have been invited to this year’s 61st Kohaku Uta Gassen / Red and White Song Contest. 

For those unfamiliar with the Kohaku.  This is the show that airs on New Year’s Eve in Japan where two teams compete for votes from the audience and viewers across Japan. 

Akagumi or the “red team” will consist of female artists:

• aiko
• Angela Aki
• Ikimonogakari
• Sayuri Ishikawa
• Kana Uemura (debut)
• AKB48
• Miyuki Kawanaka
• Kumiko (debut)
• Kumi Koda
• Godai Natsu
• Sachiko Kobayashi
• Fuyumi Sakamoto
• Yoshimi Tendo
• Dreams Come True
• Mitsuko Nakamura
• Kana Nishino (debut)
• Ayumi Hamasaki
• Perfume
• Ayaka Hirahara
• Nana Mizuki
• Kaori Mizumori
• Akiko Wada

Shirogumi or the “white team” consists of male artists:

• Arashi
• Hiroshi Itsuki
• HY (debut)
• Exile
• NYC
• Youzou Kayama
• Saburo Kitajima
• Hiromi Go
• Kobukuro
• SMAP
• Tokio
• Hideaki Tokunaga
• AAA (debut)
• Kiyoshi Hikawa
• Funky Monkey Babys
• Masuharu Fukuyama
• Flumpool
• Takashi Hosokawa
• Porno Grafitti
• Shinichi Mori
• Yusuke
• L’Arc en Ciel

The presentation of the Kohaku Uta Gassen will be presented live on NHK World Premium (available outside North America and Europe).  For the USA and Canada, there will be two delayed presentations on TV Japan.  In the past, there have also been pirate streams of the show set up on sites such as Justin.TV and UStream.   NHK Radio Japan will also present the Kohaku live on shortwave.

If you can not make it to one of those sources and you want to enjoy the music of the evening, J1 Radio will present our second annual J1 NIGHT OF RED AND WHITE featuring the songs scheduled for this year’s contest. 

You will have two opportunities to listen:

• Friday, December 31 2010  2:30A~7:00A PST / 5:30A~10:00A EST / 7:30P-Midnight JST / 6:30PM-11:00P ACT (concurrent with the live presentation of the Kohaku)
• Friday, December 31 2010  7:30P~Midnight PST / 10:30P~3:00A EST / Saturday, January 1 2011 12:30P~5:00P JST / 11:30A~4:00P ACT

Also during the New Year’s Weekend, listen for the J1 Top 100 Of The Year which will air immediately after both presentations of the J1 NIGHT OF RED AND WHITE. 

For more information on our holiday programming, visit the J1 Program Schedule at

http://en.j1fm.com/timetable

Enjoy your holidays, wherever you are. 

J1 LOVES YOU!

Hi..  Michi here..  Just giving you an update on the Facility Move.

As you may know, we moved REC Networks operations from the metro Phoenix area (Tempe) to Prescott Valley, AZ.  Prescott Valley is located about 3 hours north of Phoenix in the mountains.  It’s a pretty decent sized town with all of the amenities and then some.  This is not some podunk town.

Last Thursday, we had a Qwest DSL line put in.  J1 and it’s predecessor broadcasts have been running on Qwest DSL from the Tempe facility for a decade without any problems.

When this DSL line was dropped in, it was plagued with problems.  Between 1PM and 11PM, the service would stop working (it would go down to a crawl).. not even enough to maintain a 56K stream. 

With that said, we are going to bring in service from the local cable company to see if it will work better.   I really don’t want to put J1 on cable but that may be my only choice here. 

Anyway, J1 is currently up and running in Basic mode for now and we should know something by the middle of this coming week.  Stay tuned!

=m

J1 listeners…  Michi here!!

As you may have heard, we are leaving the Phoenix area by the end of this year.  Actually, times have been very tough here so we are looking for a place where we can afford.  We are also in a situation where we are living in a place where the landlord really does not care much about.. So therefore, it’s time to move on. 

Since August, I have been working on preparing the services of REC Networks including J1 Radio to be put into a transitional phase during the move and to eventually restore normal service when we are established at a new location. 

While the transition date has changed several times, we are currently looking for a transition date of October 24 (October 25 in Japan).  On this date, J1 Radio will convert over to the Live365 Basic Broadcasting solution. 

What this means is that the programming will not originate “live” from Phoenix but instead will use music that was stored on a server at Live365.  During the transition period,  you will notice several distinct differences about J1:

• The playlist will be limited.  The amount of space we have on Live365’s server is very limited as compared to when we stream live.  We currently have a playlist of 536 different songs Live365.  This playlist consists of mainly new releases, older 2010 releases that have had chart activity and tracks from previous years that have appeared on the Hardcore J/J1 Top 100 annual charts. 
• Listeners who are not subscribed to Live365’s VIP service will hear occasional audio advertisements. 
• Scheduled programming such as the Top-40 Countdown and Michiasa Music will not be heard during the transition.
• The number of “free” slots for listeners will be 40 instead of 20 as it is when we operate in Live mode.

This is not our desired operation for the long term.  Our hope is that once we determine where we are moving to and are able to obtain broadband services, after some time for studio set-up, we can then revert back to live mode.  In a perfect world, I would love to have it happen in time for New Year’s, but right now I can not guarantee it. 

During the transition, I will try hard to update music and the weekly charts (this will be more possible in the early weeks of the transition).  We do not know yet what the situation will be on a week by week basis.  I have taken J1/Hardcore J through 488 weeks of continuous charts.  I will do my best to not break that streak, even if we are a day or few late on publishing a chart.

Just know that during the transition, I am not giving up on J1 but because of circumstances that are beyond my personal control, it may be awhile before we are back to normal.  J1 Radio is a very important part of my life and I really hope it’s a part of your life.

I am going to ask that you please keep in touch with J1 through our channels of communication including our Facebook, Staff Blog and Twitter.   If you have any questions about this transition or you are interested in doing a weekly block program for J1, please e-mail me at info@j1fm.com. 

Again, stay tuned to our social channels and I will do my best to keep you all in the loop. 

Thank you for your understanding and thank you for listening.   J1 LOVES YOU!!

=michi

August is historical a weaker month as in many areas, the academic year has yet to start.  J1 is reporting slightly lower listening results overall.  In August, we saw a significant increase in VIP listening.  This can be equated to some changes that we made to the way that J1 is listed on Live365.  August was also the first full month that the updated Live365 website layout has been online.  We have not experienced any listener complaints as a result but we do attribute our lower results, especially from non-USA locations due to potential interactions with the new Live365 design.  We will continue to watch our trends throughout the rest of the year. 

Thank you again for listening to J1 and for subscribing to VIP.  Remember, for each VIP membership that is done through the J1 website (j1fm.com), that reward money goes directly to pay the annual broadcasting fees.  J1 was listener supported last year and we will be for 2011.  Let’s now shoot for 2012! 

J1 LOVES YOU!

On Tuesday August 17, 2010, J1 announced a conversion to 56K.  After additional review, we have determined at this time, we will remain at 64K.  Thank you for your support of J1!