Tsunami disaster area radio station in Miyagi Pref. to go off air

ONAGAWA, Miyagi -- A temporary disaster-response radio station that has been providing local information for listeners since the month after the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake is to go off air at the end of this month.

"Onagawa Saigai FM" (Onagawa disaster FM) finished its last live broadcast on March 27, and will finish with prerecorded shows by March 29. The station will be closed due to difficulties in securing funds and personnel.

The final live broadcast was the station's 2048th and took place in the commercial area in front of JR Onagawa Station, built in December last year. It included three high school students who have been regular personalities with the station, introducing the voices of disaster evacuees living in temporary housing.

During the final show, Eri Goto, 18, one of the high school student radio personalities, cried as she thanked the station for its five years of service. Goto joined the station in March 2013 together with her cousin, Natsumi Sumiyoshi, also 18, after graduating from junior high school in order to help her hometown. There was a time she thought about quitting because of difficulties in running the show, but she was inspired by her guests and colleagues as they tried to cheer up the disaster evacuees. This month she is graduating high school, and from April she will attend a beauty college in Sendai.

"I want to cherish this experience (at the radio station) my whole life," she says.

Following the decision for the station to close, an elderly listener said to Sumiyoshi, "I will miss the radio station." Starting next month Sumiyoshi will attend a vocational school in Sendai for medical office work, but says, "I will visit care facilities (for disaster evacuees) and continue to interact with them."

Another student at the station, Saki Abe, 18, has interviewed evacuees in temporary housing for the station's shows, while wondering if she was fit to do so since her personal disaster experience was not as severe. Abe will be a university student from April in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture. "Through the radio, many people gave me their affection. In the future I want to come back to Onagawa," she says.

Onagawa Saigai FM is one of a number of radio stations that were set up in the wake of the 2011 disasters to provide information to residents. Other stations in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, and Watari, Miyagi Prefecture, have already shut down. Part of Onagawa Saigai FM's programs will be continued by Tohoku Broadcasting Radio based in Sendai.