First of all, I would like to resume a little about the birth of Factor J.
Since November 1997 I was part of a Japanese animation club in my university
(ITESM, Campus Monterrey), we organizated showings every Friday. At that time I really didn't know too much about animation neither Japan's culture or anything, but I became very very interested in it. I then decided to study the Japanese language. Besides the animation I realized that music was also something special, even though my Japanese was very limited and I couldn't understand the lyrics of the songs I started liking the feeling of the rhythm and the vocals.
In this Animation Club there was a good friend of mine, Javier Treviño, who shared the same fascination for Japanese contemporary songs, not only because they belonged to a certain animated movie or series like everyone else did, but for their unique sound.
I still remember the times when we talked about songs and singers and wondered how would it be to have a radio program of this music to show everyone what they are missing.
So the time passed, I continued in the club at the same time I got more and more into the music, reading on the internet about singers and groups, listening to songs any chance I had.
In November 1998, just a month before I graduated, the big chance to make the dream came true appearing just in front of Javier and me: The university was granted to run a cultural radio station able to broadcast to all the city of Monterrey (population 3,000,000). So, we didn't think twice and wrote a formal proposal about what we wanted to do in our program. In March 1999 station's managers of "Frecuencia Tec 94.9FM" liked our intentions and gave us "green light", and we named the first radio program of Japanese music and culture in Mexico: "Factor J".
The first broadcast of Factor J was on Wednesday May 5th 1999. We were very nervous and excited thinking how we were being pioneers. The first song we played was "Can you celebrate?" by Namie Amuro. On our 3rd show we got with 11 phone calls in half an hour, mostly boys and girls congratulating us for the program and asking for Japanese animation related songs. Javier and other other members of the staff left the show, but I stayed on we were given a one hour Saturday timeslot because we were getting many new listeners.
In almost every emission we include a "cultural section" exposing a certain issue about Japan, for example, their way of dressing, their religion, their economical situation or any other related topic. Also there we interview some people involved, like foreign Japanese students that come to Mexico, and leaders of association. It can be said our mission is to spread Japan's culture along with its contemporary music.
At the begining of Factor J, it was somehow confusing for the people who listen to us I think, due first, to our lack of experience in radio, and second to the singularity of the music and language, it's unusual to find someone who knows Japanese in a country like Mexico. But now time, people recognize some of the singers by their names, and ask for particular songs. They are really becoming fans of Japanese music. Of course, part of our rating is because a lot of people listen to us because of their knowledge of Japanese animation. In Mexico, Dragon Ball, Ranma, Pokemon are all shown on TV now.
Since Frecuencia Tec 94.9 FM is a cultural radio station, there can't be commercials of any kind, and therefore we can't have sponsors in order to get more new music. Of course program's staff are all volunteers. Now the thought of asking for support to the major record brands of Japan, like Avex, comes to mind, maybe they could send us some promotional singles. After all we are opening a market for them at the other side of the world.
Jonathan Sosa
jrsosa@email.com
Producer and Co-D.J. of Factor J, Frecuencia Tec 94.9fm
Monterrey, Mexico
