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The NHK Okinawa Broadcasting Station (NHK沖縄放送局, NHK Okinawa Hoso Kyoku) is a unit of the NHK that oversees terrestrial broadcasting in Okinawa Prefecture.

History

Second World War

The station in Shuri City (currently Shuri Samukawa-cho, Naha City) started on March 19, 1942, during the Pacific War. Wired broadcasting was transmitted around Naha, but three years later, in March 1945, the station equipment was damaged in the air raids just before the Battle of Okinawa, and the ceased operating and was temporarily discontinued.

OHK (American occupation)

In October 1961, the NHK Naha communication station opened. It was the first time in 16+1⁄2 years that the NHK had established a base in Okinawa, but at the time, it was under the US military administration, so it was treated as a general overseas branch office until the reversion.

In September 1964, the microwave line between Okinawa and Mainland Japan was opened, providing programs to OTV and RBC with sponsors. Subsequently, the NHK replaced the Naha communication station with a general station for Okinawa.

Following planning in Okinawa and Sakishima from 1965, the Ryukyu government enacted the Regulations for Establishing the Broadcasting System Investigation Council (1966 Regulation No. 153). The Law Concerning Transfer of Equipment Necessary for Television Broadcasting in Miyako Islands and Yaeyama Islands (Law No. 24 of 1967) was promulgated and enforced in July 1967, then the Broadcasting Law (No. 122) was passed by the government in September and in the same month it was promulgated. ^[1]

The corporation was established on October 2, 1967, as the Okinawa Broadcasting Corporation (沖縄放送協会, Okinawa Hoso Kyokai or OHK). ^[2]

Television broadcasts started on December 22, 1968 (OHK only operated by television, never by radio) under the callsign KSGB-TV, broadcasting on VHF channel 2 in the Japanese standard. On January 1, 1969, OHK began to charge a viewing fee (80 cents per month ). On April 12, 1969, the OHK broadcasting center and broadcasting hall were completed, and they were officially opened on October 1 of the same year, and the NHK program recording center also moved in. On December 1, 1969, the OHK Nakijin relay station began to operate. On April 1, 1971, the OHK Kumejima relay station was opened.

The frequencies under the American occupation era were as follows:

• Naha (main): channel 2 Japan standard (KSGB-TV)
• Nakijin: channel 38 Japan standard
• Kumejima: channel 10 Japan standard (in 1995, the frequency moved to 36 as a measure against sporadic E reception)
• Miyakojima: channel 9 USA standard (KSDY-TV)
• Ishigaki (Yaeyama): channel 11 USA standard (KSGA-TV), later moved to 9 in the Japanese standard
• Ishigaki (Kabira): channel 13 USA standard, later moved to 11 in the Japanese standard
• Taketomi: channel 10 USA standard, later moved to 8 in the Japanese standard
• Yonaguni: channel 12 USA standard, later moved to 10 in the Japanese standard and 37 in 1998

The stations were granted Japanese frequencies in anticipation for the return of Japanese control over the islands.

After the reversion

Following the reversion agreement in which Japan restored its control over Okinawa Prefecture, OHK was merged with the NHK Okinawa General Bureau and was reorganized into the NHK Okinawa Broadcasting Station and the NHK Miyako Broadcasting Station. Due to the application of Japan's Broadcasting Law, the TV frequencies and call signs of each broadcasting station have changed. ^[3] OHK Television was renamed NHK Okinawa (General) Television (the callsign for Tomigusuku Station on the main island, JOAP-TV). NHK Educational Television (JOAD-TV) broadcasting started on the main island. In the Sakishima area, after the Yaeyama station was integrated into the Miyako station, it continued to be broadcast only on General TV (call sign JOVQ-TV). The content of the broadcast was a mix of the two networks, and its contents were delayed (Grand Sumo wrestling and high school baseball were delayed by one day, and New Year's Eve Kohaku Uta Gassen was broadcast on New Year's Day). The news was broadcast on a blue screen with its own subtitles for the radio news audio.

On June 25, the radio station that existed before 1945 (JOAP) resumed, alongside a Radio 2 station (JOAD). A relay station was also set up on Miyakojima and Ishigakijima, and it was broadcast simultaneously with the main island. The NHK FM station started broadcasting on June 24, 1974 (JOAP-FM), due to the circumstances of broadcasting at the time, the station broadcast with monaural audio. ^[4] Due to the provisional opening of the submarine cable, TV news in the Miyako and Yaeyama areas will be broadcast simultaneously with the main island of Okinawa and the mainland (but in black and white). ^[5]

Stereo TV broadcasts started on February 23, 1986, for General TV and on March 21, 1991, for Educational TV.

The relocation to the new broadcasting hall constructed in Omoromachi, Naha City, was completed on March 6, 2006. The sales department, which was already in Naha City before the relocation, was already relocated after the building was completed. Digital terrestrial broadcasts started on April 1, 2006, for both stations and 1seg (until October 1, the 1seg signal relayed the NHK station in Fukuoka, but following the start of the Kitakyushu station in this format, it switched to the Okinawa broadcast).

From April 2018, all local news and weather information on weekends and holidays (including year-end and New Year holidays) were unified into the Kyushu-Okinawa news block from Fukuoka, except for elections and disasters, in principle, for both TV and radio. Local news and weather information from Okinawa were available only on weekdays. From the April reorganization in 2022, local news and weather information in the prefecture will be broadcast only on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays at 18:45 (TV and radio outside of this time zone are mainly used during long holidays and during the Obon holidays. During the year-end and New Year period, as a general rule, Kyushu-Okinawa block news from Fukuoka will be broadcast as usual).

NHK Plus added regional programming, including programming from Okinawa, on May 15, 2023. ^[6]

Status of services in the Daito Islands

All broadcasting services, including terrestrial digital broadcasting, can be used around the main island and in the Sakishima area, but due to geographical factors, the Daito Islands are as follows as of June 2019.

General and Educational Television

In the Daito Islands, which are far from the main island of Okinawa, it is not only impossible to directly receive terrestrial waves, but there is also no cable TV. Therefore, in 1975, NHK Okinawa opened a broadcasting test station (currently a terrestrial broadcasting test station, call sign JO7D-TV), and the Okinawa broadcasting station sent a video tape containing the programs to the Minami Daito Island office, which was only broadcast for about 4 hours a day.

After that, in May 1984, the test broadcast of NHK BS1 (pre-2011 version), which is the base of the current NHK BS1, was originally planned to be a two-channel system, but due to a satellite failure, only one channel was broadcast. It began to be provided in the form of general simulcast (some staggered broadcasts and educational TV staggered broadcasts are also available). In the reorganization of the schedule in 1987, the simultaneous relay of the terrestrial signal was started in 1986. From April 1998 until the end of analog broadcasting on July 24, 2011, NHK Tokyo (JOAK-TV and JOAB-TV) broadcasts for the Ogasawara Islands sent by satellite communication were received, and terrestrially, but with the end of analog broadcasting, the source was switched to safety net broadcasting using BS from the latter half of 2010. Information on Okinawa Prefecture was conveyed by inserting telops on the screen via the telephone line.

Initially, it was said that the relay station for digital broadcasting was intended to be installed in 2010, but many problems arose, such as how to maintain the relay line between the main island and Daito Island, and how to bear the installation costs. However, there was no prospect of opening the station. After that, in the beginning of 2011, there was a prospect to start laying a submarine cable between the main island and Daito Island, and since it was laid in the same year, the station was opened on July 22, 2011, two days before the last day of analog broadcasting.

For the above reasons, until the summer of 2010, when there is a match in which Okinawa representative schools participate in the Selected High School Baseball Tournament or the National High School Baseball Championship, it was broadcast on NHK BS2 (discontinued in March 2011. Currently integrated into NHK BS Premium) live.

Radio 1

On April 1, 2007, a relay station was opened in the form of FM wave conversion, but since signals are sent via satellite communication lines between the main island and Daito Island, it may not be possible to hear in extreme bad weather.

NHK-FM

It cannot be received all day except when sporadic E occurs from May to August. No relay station has been installed (the opening date is also undecided). In particular, the Daito Islands remain the only area in Japan where direct reception of NHK-FM radio broadcasts is not possible.

Multiple stations

Since September 1, 2011, NHK Net Radio RADIRU★RADIRU, which simultaneously distributes NHK Radio 1, NHK Radio 2 and NHK-FM on the internet, has been launched in the Daito Islands.

Initially, it was retransmitted only to four stations in Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, but in September 2016, it was broadcast in eight major cities nationwide: Sapporo, Hiroshima, Matsuyama, and Fukuoka. It became possible to listen to it, and it became possible to listen to programs "for Kyushu and Okinawa" from Fukuoka. However, since some programs that cannot be distributed simultaneously due to difficulties in handling rights are included, FM prefectural programs and some programs that cannot be distributed simultaneously due to difficulties in handling rights cannot be heard unless a line or relay station is established. local programs cannot be listened to on RADIRU★RADIRU.

Channels and frequencies

Callsign

• General system: Radio 1 broadcast JOAP, General TV JOAP-DTV, FM broadcast JOAP-FM
• Educational system: Radio 2 Broadcast JOAD, Educational TV JOAD-DTV

Before the war, "JOAP" was designated as the Okinawa broadcasting station, but with the end of the war in 1945, it was abolished, and after the war it was designated as "JOAP-FM" for the Maebashi station's FM broadcasting. After that, when the Okinawa Broadcasting Corporation was reorganized into the NHK Okinawa Broadcasting Station due to the reversion to the mainland, there was an opinion that it would be preferable to designate "JOAP" for the newly opened Okinawa station, and "JOAP" was transferred from the Maebashi station to the Okinawa station. handed over. Along with this, Maebashi's FM station was changed to JOTP-FM, and Kyoto's FM station, which had this call sign, refused the planned abolition of the first broadcast (later abolished in 2015). Therefore, it was changed to JOOK-FM.

Television

Radio

Satellite relays in the Daito Islands

Due to geographical and technical circumstances in the Daito Islands, satellite broadcasting (BS1/BS2) was used from the start of experimental satellite broadcasting in May 1984 to the start of terrestrial retransmission broadcasting in April 1998, in Minami-Daito and Kita-Daito islands, and was continued thereafter. In both cases, BS analog broadcasting was converted to terrestrial broadcasting, so it could be viewed with a VHF antenna, but after the end of analog broadcasting (complete transition to BS digital), relay stations have been abolished (After the shift to digital, it will be received with a satellite dish).

Minamidaito BS relay station

• Old BS1 → BS1 channel 4, 100W
• BS2 → BS Premium channel 6, 100W

Branch offices/bureaux

There are two "branch offices" in Okinawa City in the central part of the main island and Nago City in the northern part in order to respond to news coverage etc. in places far from the station in Naha City. In addition, in the Sakishima area where the Okinawa Broadcasting Corporation Broadcasting Station used to be, an office has been set up to handle news coverage, reception fee administration, and reception consultation.

Branch offices

• Okinawa
• Nago

Bureaux

• Miyakojima
• Yaeyama

Main programs produced by the Okinawa station

Data as of April 2023. ^[7]

General TV

Bolded programs are available on NHK Plus's Local Plus.

• News/weather information
  • Weekdays 11:57-12:00 (only weather), 12:15-12:20 (only news)
  • Weekends and holidays 18:45-18:59
• Good Morning Okinawa (07:45-08:00)
  • 07:45-07:55 given to local news, remaining 5 minutes given to weather bulletin from NHK Fukuoka (from Good Morning Kyushu Okinawa)
• Okinawa Chura TV (11:40-12:00, national weather between 11:54-11:57)
• Okinawa HOTeye (18:10-18:59)
• News 845 Okinawa (20:45-21:00)
• Kinkuru 〜Okinawa Friday Cruise〜 (irregular Fridays 19:30-19:55, sometimes to 20:00 depending on the content)
• Typhoon information
• Okinawan Songs and Dances (at least one Friday per month 19:30-19:57, program created in 1969 in the OHK days)

Educational TV

• Uchinaa de Asobo (Mondays and Wednesdays 17:30 - 17:35, Fridays 8:50 - 8:55)

Radio 1

• Weekday radio news for Okinawa prefecture at 09:55, 11:50 (simulcast with NHK-FM), 12:15 (simulcast with NHK-FM), 13:55, 17:55 and 18:50 (simulcast with NHK-FM)
  • Other than the above, news bulletins from NHK Fukuoka are broadcast.
  • Okinawa Enthusiast Club (last Friday of the month, 17:05-17:55)

NHK-FM

• • Okinawa Music Journey (first Friday of the month, 18:00-18:50)

Past programs

General TV

• ニューススタジオ沖縄
• イブニングネットワークおきなわ
• 630沖縄
• あたらしい沖縄のうた（1977-2008）
• おきなわチャンプルータイム
• りっかりっか沖縄
• 太陽カンカンワイド（てぃだかんかんわいど。April 1, 1997 – March 31, 2006）
• 沖縄情報市場（2006年4月3日 - 2007年3月）
• おもろてれぐすく
• ハイサイ!てれびすかす
• ハイサイ!ニュース610（2007-2010）
• NEWSおきなわ610
• ドキュメント沖縄（2007-2008）
• 復帰40年企画・NHKが映した沖縄（2012）

NHK-FM

• うちなぁジョッキー（Featured since 2010）

Main locations of weather cameras

Main island

• Naha City (Broadcasting Hall in Omoromachi, Naha Airport on the roof of the building where the Naha sales department was located in Maejima), Chatan Town, Okinawa City, Onna Village

Sakishima

• Miyakojima City, Ishigaki City

References

External links

• Official website