FM Broadcast Stations supporting Disaster Victims

In Tohoku area, many of the community broadcasting stations were initially established for the purpose of disaster reduction and disseminating information for urgent daily necessity; e.g. distribution of foods & other urgent needs.

In the lapse of time, 3 years after the disaster, the radio programs are gradually shifting to supply information to enhance people's quality of life or to rebuild the communities lost by the disaster.

However, for such functions of community broadcasting to be sustainable, strong support by the community people is indispensable to gain financial aid from the municipality as most of the broadcasting stations have subsistence problems.

In April, further to improve the quality of the programs and serve better to local needs, broadcasting stations in Tohoku area jointly held a forum in Minami-soma Temporary Disaster Broadcasting Station, and over 30 operational staffs gathered to discuss & exchange their experiences.

Also, a little behind the schedule by technical reason, BHN Association plans to install uninterruptable power supply (UPS) systems to the last remaining two stations in Tohoku area soon.

In the city of Natori which suffered 1,000 human loss and 5,000 buildings destroyed by the Tsunami in 2011, BHN has been assisting the municipal government to move and install new radio broadcasting systems since about a year ago. BHN’s functions in the work were to design the system configuration, to assist the bidding procedure for contract and to supervise the construction works done by the contractors.

By December last year, the studio structure was completed and the broadcasting equipment was installed and it is now ready for practical operation which will commence very soon.

After the completion of all the contracted construction works, BHN plans to donate UPS (Un-interruptible Power Supply) systems for the studio and radio emitting station soon in the course of January - February.

From time to time, BHN is requested to resolve technical problems in other broadcasting stations in Tohoku area. Among other technical troubles the failure with the Amplifier Limiter is the major cause of claims from the audience.   To quickly fix such Limiter failures, BHN plans to equip a spare Limiter in the city of Natori which will be shared by other broadcasting stations in the Tohoku area, as the city is located in the center of the area.