November 2010
3 posts
J1 Holiday Programming for 2010
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...
NHK Announces Kohaku Artists / J1 Announces 2nd...
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
...
Facility Move: What happened?
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...
October 2010
1 post
Move update..
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...
September 2010
1 post
J1 reports August 2010 Results
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...
August 2010
3 posts
J1 to stay 64K at this time
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!
J1 Basic Mode Operation 8/15 1P~3P PDT
J1 will be switching to Basic Mode operation between 1PM and 3PM PDT on Sunday, August 15, 2010 (Monday 3AM-5AM JST).
This affected operation is to prepare REC Networks for the upcoming facility move later this year.
Live365 failover should cause listeners to not be dropped.
We will resume to regular broadcasting if the work is completed prior to 3PM.
Thank you for your undertanding.
J1 Releases July, 2010 Results
The listening continues through the summer with a very interesting month at J1. During the later part of this month, J1 made some changes to the “genre codes” on the Live365 broadcast directory which resulted in an end-of-month increase in TLH. We hope this increase goes into August. J1 saw a significant increase over June in our Total Listening Hours (TLH) for paid Live-365 VIP...
July 2010
2 posts
J1 Top 100 Chart for the first half of 2010
Here we are in the middle of 2010. As many know, at the end of the year, we release our J1 Top 100 of the Year chart. This is our “final score” for the competition of music on J1 Radio. It also drives how older songs will be heard on J1 in subsequent years.
Normally, J1 does 52 charts per broadcast year. This creates a dilemma, a year is not a perfect 52 weeks. This causes the...
1 tag
J1 reports June results
For June, J1 reports lower listening statistics. The overall ASL is down to 15.43 compared to May’s 15.71 ASL. June’s lower statistics can be attributed to several factors including two significant network outages, one lasting 13 hours as well as the World Cup games and a seasonal decline in listening that has traditionally taken place each summer. J1 thanks our listeners for their...
June 2010
3 posts
From Michiko Ota Eyre, director of J1 Radio
This past week has not been a good week for J1. We were plagued with service interruptions that caused our network access to fail and therefore cut off the broadcast to our listeners.
Let me explain what happened. Our internet service provider Qwest had an issue with the circuit which connects our telephone central office here in Tempe to the ISP. This caused the circuit to sporadically...
Major Network Outage
We had a major network outage today. The problem is with the internet service provider and not REC/J1 Radio. We are currently at the mercy of Qwest to get this resolved. J1 is now on Basic Broadcast mode until this is working again. We apologize for the inconvenience.
J1 releases listening statistics for May, 2010
Listening tapered off a little bit in May. This is expected as historically, TLH has declined in the summer months because of less people in schools and others taking summer holiday/vacation. Starting at the end of May, we have removed the Retro Weekend. We will reevalute the strategy of the show as we get near the end of summer. Total Listening Hours Overall TLH: May 11,690 (377 per day) /...
May 2010
4 posts
J1 plays hot hits all summer long!
In the United States, this upcoming Monday is the national holiday, Memorial Day. It is a day that we honor those who have served in the American military. Some consider it the unofficial beginning of Summer.
This is also a traditional time when REC Networks makes schedule changes.
To celebrate the Summer, J1 will be playing today’s Pure JPOP all summer long!
For the summer, J1 will...
J1 English Website Maintenance - May 18/19
At times on Tuesday, May 18 and Wednesday, May 19, the J1 English language website (en.j1fm.com) may not be functioning. This is due to the conversion of the J1 website to a new content management package. This work will eventually be done to the Japanese site. We will try to keep the downtime of the site to a minimum. The layout of the site will change slightly but the ste features you use...
Live365 Maintenance - May 6
On May 6, 2010, Live365’s upstream provider will be conducting maintenance. This may cause J1 to be unstable or unavailable during the following window:
5/6 3:00AM~5/6 6:00AM Pacific Daylight Time 5/6 19:00~22:00 Japan Standard Time 5/6 6:00PM~9:00PM ASEAN Coordinated Time (ACT) 5/6 1000~1300 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC/GMT)
J1 service will continue after the...
J1 reports April, 2010 results
April brought a shower of new listeners to J1 as we saw a very significant increase in overall Total Listening Hours (TLH). J1’s overall ASL rating (see explanation below)) had soared this past month from 14.81 in March to 16.27 this month. ASL for Michiasa has substantially improved, especially on the weaker Monday (Sunday in the USA) timeslot. The growth in Europe is evident due to the...
April 2010
1 post
J1 reports March results
In March, J1 experienced a gradual increase in listening around the world. Our world markets are starting to be more defined as our listening in Japan, Singapore and North America (USA/Canada) increase and other nations start to decrease. North America accounts for over 50% of J1 listening in the past month. Domestically in the USA, we have seen a substantial increase of share in Southern...
March 2010
4 posts
J1 9-to-5 Challenge expands to Europe
Why should North America and Japan have all of the fun? J1 is extending it’s “9 to 5 Challenge” promotion to include Europe.
The 9-to-5 Challenge for Europe will run between 9AM and 5PM Central European Time, except during summer when it will run between 9AM and 5PM British Summer Time (BST).
This 8 hour period is currently not covered by the other two 9-to-5 Challenges.
...
J1 posts two record listening days in a row!
Over the past couple of days, J1 has seen a surge in listening including through hours that in the past were traditionally the “slow” times.
One figure that we use to determine the strength of the station is the ASL (average simultaneous listeners). This is the average number of listeners during all scans (every 5 minutes) within the past 24 hours.
On Tuesday, March 16, J1 had an...
Attention USA listeners: Daylight Saving Time
Starting on Sunday, March 14, the United States will go to Daylight Saving Time.
As a result, J1 scheduled programs will be heard one hour later in the United States time zones. This will have no impact on our worldwide listeners outside the US. You will continue to be able to listen at the same times (unless your region converts to daylight/summer time at a later date).
New airtimes for US...
2 tags
J1 reports February, 2010 results
Even if you take into consideration that February was a short month, J1 saw an overall decline in total listening hours and a substantial decline in VIP listening.
J1 saw a substantal increase in listening during the PST evening hours from 5PM to 11PM (during Japan’s workday), Sunday through Thursday. During this time, J1 had an ASL of 18.09, which is well above our station average. This...
February 2010
8 posts
J1 now has a Mixi community
J1 now has a presence on Mixi. Mixi is Japan’s largest Social Networking Service (SNS) with over 10 million users. Mixi is distinctive because it was invite only and it’s usually virtually impossible for someone who does not have a Japanese cell phone to use the service (but we are aware of a good workaround.)
To access the community, visit
...
New J1 show "Michiasa Music" starts Monday 3/1,...
J1 presents a new music “sub-format” within the J1 programming day. The new show “Michiasa Music” will air during the Japanese morning period Monday-Friday from 8AM to 10AM JST (Sunday-Thursday 3PM-5PM PST/4PM-6PM PDT). In this two-hour period, J1 will present music from a 1,200 song playlist. The songs chosen were handpicked by J1’s director Michiko Ota as the...
2/17~2/18 Live365 Scheduled Maintenance
Live365 has announced that they will be conducting maintenance with one of their bandwidth providers. This may result in two possible outages for the J1 broadcast:
Outage Window #1 2/17/2010 2 AM - 5 AM PST 2/17/2010 19.00 - 22.00 JST 2/17/2010 6PM - 9PM ACT
Outage Window #2 2/18/2010 2 AM - 5 AM PST 2/18/2010 19.00 - 22.00 JST 2/18/2010 6PM - 9PM ACT
J1 is...
Vocalist Of Visual Kei Band Gakido, Killed In Car...
mirashinku:
The members of Gakido were involved in a car accident on the 12th. Unfortunately, Piyo passed away due to severe head injury during the accident. Yohya, Rito, Yuu and Shutaro are all doing fine. TOSSY and one of their staff members are currently hospitalized, but conscious. Four of the members, Yohya, Rito, Yuu and Shutaro, have updated with the news. So far I have translated...
02/12 ~ Brief station maintenance outage planned
J1 is planning a short outage at approximately 5PM PST / (Saturday) 10AM JST. This is to do some network related work at REC Networks. We anticipate this outage to last less than 15 minutes. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.
=michi
2/6 ~ back on the air!
The maintenance has been completed. J1 is back on the air! Thank you for your patience.
2/6/10 ~ station maintenance
J1 is currently going through a short maintenance period to do long overdue updates.
The station will be completely off the air until this work is done.
Expected time up: 2/6/10 5AM PST ~~ 2/6/10 10 PM JST
We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
J1 reports results for January, 2010
Overall, J1 listening statistics for January have been fairly steady over December. Overall total listening hours (TLH) fell short of the 30-day November period but was an increase over December. In January, J1 did see an increase in VIP listening and simultaneous VIP counts have been seen as high as 7 during the course of the month.
Our VIP listeners help contribute towards our yearly...
January 2010
10 posts
1/22 - 6AM MST - J1 Operations Status
Due to the stable power overnight, we have switched J1 back to live mode meaning that programming is originating from REC Networks in Tempe, Arizona.
We are anticipating another storm to come through later this morning. Based on the outcome of that storm, we may be required to switch back to basic mode.
We prefer to operate J1 on the Live mode because it allows us to play more new music than to...
1/21 9:30PM (MST) J1 Operations Update
A severe storm has skirted by the Tempe, Arizona area where J1 is located. We had a tornado watch and some local radio listeners reported seeing cyclones in nearby Scottsdale (about 10 km away). As of right now, the winds have calmed down and the rain has stopped.
Another storm is expected to reach the Phoenix area in the morning local time. For this reason, J1 will continue to operate in...
5:05PM MST/9:09 JST UPDATE
While we have power and internet, we can not trust that it will remain up. The worst of the storm has not come through. We are going to play it safe and keep it in Basic overnight (MST). We will bring up Twitter services later tonight as long as the power and net stays stable.
At least with the station in Basic mode, we are broadcasting something. This broadcast is a limited playlist and...
J1 OUTAGE ~ CHANGED TO BASIC MODE.
J1 is now on Basic Mode. It is very possible that we will be in this mode for approximately 3 days.
We’ll post later with more information.
Please follow @Michichan on Twitter as that will be the first source of information.
J1 operations update for Thursday, January 21.
A major storm that will bring gusts of up to 60 MPH is expected to hit the Phoenix, Arizona area sometime on Thursday or Friday.
This may result in a power outage at REC Networks.
In the event of a power outage and our situation at the time, we will make an attempt to move the station to Live365 basic mode until power is restored. There may be a period of time (perhaps a long period of time)...
J1 listeners are AWESOME!!!
Hi! Michi here!!
Here’s a little behind the scenes at J1. This is the monitor that I use that displays the station statistics. It updates every 5 minutes. Within the grid, numbers in black are the free listeners, the red is the Live365 VIP members.
If the background is in gold, this is what we refer to as “golden time” on J1. During Golden Time, only Live365 VIPs can tune...
Predicted rain in Phoenix area may mean outages
Currently, the western United States is experiencing substantial rain and snow in the higher elevations due to a storm that is expected to bring rain to the Phoenix area for the rest of the week.
In the past, during these types of storms, we may experience power outages here at REC Networks. This can interrupt the live J1 broadcast stream.
Please make sure you follow J1’s staff Twitter...
J1 maintenance outage Friday 1/15
J1’s streaming provider Live365 will be conducting maintenance with their bandwidth provider. During this time, you will not be able to listen to the broadcast. Please rejoin us after the maintenance period.
J1の放送プロバイダのメンテナンスが実施される。メンテナンス中は、放送に耳を傾けることができなくなります。
Outage time/中断時間
PST: Friday/金 2:00 AM~5:00 AM EST: Friday/金 5:00 AM~8:00 AM JST: Friday/金 午後７時～１０時 (7PM-10PM) ACT: Friday/金...
The Michiasa Music Project
If you go back through the history of J1’s predecessor Hardcore J, the station started in 2001. At that time, “HCJ” was running using the Live365 basic broadcasting solution. At that time, all of the music was encoded at 56K. Because of the limitations of the basic mode, we placed ID jingles actually at the beginning of the song files, just to make for better transitions.
...
J1 reports results for December, 2009 plus holiday...
For December, J1 reports a slight decline in total listening hours (TLH). Much of this can be attributed to the expected reduction in listening as a result of the Christmas and New Years holidays.
During this period, the Japan/Asia at-work segment had a strong showing over their American at-work counterparts, especially near the end of the year.
J1 thanks you for listening in 2009 and we are...
December 2009
13 posts
Special programming this week on J1
Here we are in the last week of the year. This is a time when we wind down the year, celebrate and do some long overdue maintenance.
This weekend (12/26~12/27) is our usual weekend schedule including the Hardcore J Retro Weekend as well as the last episode of the J1 JPOP Top 40 Countdown of the decade. J1 has been charting constantly since 2001 and we will be going strong into 2010. There...
2010 Japan Night ~ CHATMONCHY to play SXSW →
クリスマスの歌 →
Reminder of J1 X'mas Programming
Just a reminder, the J1 All X’mas format will begin on Thursday 12/24 at 3PM Pacific Time which corresponds to 8AM in Japan. The format will operate until Friday 12/25 at 11PM Pacific Time when the Hardcore J Retro Weekend starts.
There is no new music update this week due to the holiday break by the Japanese music industry. Therefore, there will be no New Music Test show this week.
...
Polysics to tour USA →
From Anime News Network.
The POLYSICS rock band has announced on its website that it will be performing an American tour in January and February of 2010.
NHK announces songs to be performed at 60th Kohaku →
JPopLover reports that NHK has announced the songs that will be performed by the artists invited to this year’s Red and White Song Battle / Kohaku Uta Gassen.
The performance by girl group AKB48 is identified as “River Surprise Kohaku Remix”. We are hoping it will be a medley of their (Oricon) #1 hit “River” and “Namida Surprise”.
Looks like it’s...
琥珀プレビューのスコアカード →
4 tags
J1 2009 Kohaku Uta Gassen Preview (Scoped...