Only 1 AM station in Japanese Kanto area have decided to stop AM from February 2024.
According to May 21 issue of “Tokyo Simbun”, only 1 AM station in Kanto area have decided to stop AM from February 2024.
Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications permits AM commercial radio stations to stop AM on a trial bases for maximum 2 years from February 2024, if they request in November 2023, when all the AM radio stations renew licenses.
As for Kanto area (Tokyo and surrounded 6 prefectures), only 1 AM station out of 6 decided to stop AM.
Tokyo: Nippon Hoso (Kisarazu 1242kHz/Tokyo Sky Tree 93.0MHz), Bunka Hoso (Kawaguchi 1134kHz/Tokyo Sky Tree 91.6MHz), TBS Radio (Toda 954kHz/Tokyo Sky Tree 90.5MHz) do not stop AM, because 1) each station has only one AM transmitter site, 2) FM from Tokyo Sky Tree (634m) cannot cover the northern Kanto areas.
Kanagawa: Radio Nippon (Kawasaki 1422kHz/Odawara 1485kHz/Yokohama-Tsurumi 92.4MHz) is considering not stop AM because most of the listeners are old aged who prefer to listen on AM.
Tochigi: Tochigi Hoso (Utsunomiya 1530kHz/Nasu 864kHz/Ashikaga 1062kHz/Utsunomiya 94.1MHz/Ashikaga 91.1MHz/3 relays 93.4MHz）does not decided yet. Cause for concern is the low penetration of the FM radios receivable above 90MHz (Japanese old FM radio is covering only 76-90MHz).
Ibaragi: Ibaragi Hoso (Mito 1197kHz/2 relays 1458kHz/Tsukuba 88.1MHz/Hitachi 88.1MHz/Moriya 88.1MHz/Mito 94.6MHz) decided to stop AM because 100W FM transmitter in Tsukuba (located at the top of Mt.Hokyo 461m) can cover much wider areas than AM. 88.1MHz can be received by old FM radios for 76-90MHz.
Original article is https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/251392.
Takahito Akabayashi, Tokyo, Japan to WOR iog (2023-05-24)