With the IP networks down in Japan and prorities on more important things while the rest of the world watches live coverage of the earthquake and tsunami, J1's average listening was down as much as over 55% during some portions of the broadcast day in the hours that followed the original 8.8 quake off the coast of Miyagi-ken.

我々は地震と津波の金曜日の後の日本の人のために祈ります。日本が強いと用意されています。日本が再構築されます。私たちの心は日本人とされます。

大田道子
最高経営責任者RECネットワーク
ディレクターJ1ラジオ

Friday's (JST) 8.8 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Japan's main island Honshu at Miyagi-ken and it's resulting tsunami has caused severe damage throughout Japan's eastern coast. Watching the homes in Sendai city and other coastal areas being washed away was devistating to watch. The structural damage and overall loss of property is enormous. So many people's lives have changed as a result.

Recently, Franny (remember her?) put up a Facebook group for the callers of K-Fone, another voice system that has ran until recently. The interesting thing about K-Fone and many of the REC systems was that it was developed on the same platform. First a quick tutorial on the generations of REC systems:

Generation 1 - Chatsworth 1987-1988 - Called the "REC Conference, Voice Mail and Information Access Service". Featured a live conference bridge, private voice mail and IAS boxes (one way recordings that callers can operate). Operated on an IBM XT.

Perhaps, it's time for this to happen. NPR has got too big.. There was once a time when college radio stations were actually located at the college and were programmed by students and members of the community at large. But these stations out of greed towards the promotion of other university programs got bigger. Transmitter antennas moved off of campuses and on to mountaintops. Powers increased and suddenly public radio was big-time. With that, stations sprouted formats. Gone are the day of local music, local views, local people and most importantly, the students.