Kensaku Ohkubo
Born 1947 in Kurashiki. Graduated from Waseda University, Science and Engineering Department. Joined Kurashiki Lumber Co., Ltd. after working at the Kurashiki branch office of Fujiki Komuten Co., Ltd. Became Representative Director in 1986. Set up FM Kurashiki in 1996. His hobby is collecting Ham radio, vintage radio, television, and tube radio equipment.
Ten years have passed since I, originally a lumber dealer, began working for an FM radio station, handling information. Whenever I am asked “Why?” I reply jokingly, “A lumber dealer has many ki (“Tree” in Japanese. The word “interest” is also pronounced the same, therefore, a pun.)” Not the real reason, needless to say. I simply love the radio. It is almost a disease. A small crystal set radio I assembled when I was in the third grade must have been the cause of this illness. This simple radio I had put together for the first time received NHK Okayama’s broadcast. Half a century since my first exposure, the virus has penetrated my entire body; instead of being cured, I love it all the more.
In our old house near Kurashiki Station where my family lived, was a phonograph about the size of a small refrigerator -- about 60 centimeters wide and deep and 1 meter in height. Beneath the turntable on the top that played SP records was a radio unit. The program that the radio received was sometimes the news and other times exciting drama. However, this radio that I so dearly loved soon ended up in pieces. My overwhelming desire and curiosity made me want to learn how it worked. I took it apart, but could not get it put back together correctly. A learning experience indeed.
The mysterious world that came out of the speaker was truly an analog dream and gave me much enjoyment. How wonderful the radio is! This unyielding passion towards the radio matured after many years to become “FM Kurashiki.”
FM Kurashiki began airing Christmas Eve, 1996. At the opening reception party, I borrowed and displayed an American vacuum tube radio. I wanted to show the roots of my passion that was the beginning of my radio business. It was made by RCA in the 1920s, and I had talked the owner, now deceased, who ran an old inn at the Bikan Historical Area, into lending it to me. Kurashiki is a beautiful city with rows of old houses. It is also a city that is in harmony with the radio.
A community radio broadcasting station is, I believe, similar to a church bell in medieval Europe. The area where the sound of the bell reached was the community where people shared their lives, and it is said that the bells not only informed time, but, by combining its sound, also sent out various information of the town, communicating the joys of life and the strength to carry on. Would the listeners of FM Kurashiki share the same feeling I felt as a child clinging on to the phonograph, listening to the radio, and letting my imagination run wild? Does it communicate the sounds and smell of the streets of Kurashiki and the mood of the people who live here? Does it give our listeners hope and energy for the future?
I constantly bear in mind that FM Kurashiki must continue broadcasting programs of that kind of quality.