Early years In 1950, following the enactment of the Radio Law,
Mainichi Shimbun sought to establish three radio stations in Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka. Its application for the Tokyo area was later merged with those of other national newspapers and Dentsu, forming Radio Tokyo. In the Osaka area, Mainichi Shimbun applied to establish a station under the name New Japan Broadcasting (later renamed Mainichi Broadcasting), and in Fukuoka Prefecture, under the name
Radio Kyushu. A license for JOFR was issued on 21 April 1951, and the company was formally established on 29 June. Radio Kyushu began operations on 1 December of the same year. Radio Kyushu was one of the first 72 companies in Japan to apply for a license to establish a private radio station.
Jump to television Radio Kyushu received a request for a television license in 1955, becoming preliminary on 22 November 1956. At the samme time as its launch, another company, Mainichi Seibu Television (西部毎日テレビ) obtained a broadcasting license to cover
Kokura and the western side of
Yamaguchi, using the JOGX-TV callsign. From 1975, the company implemented a two-day weekend system. On 30 March 1980, RKB TV started stereo broadcasting, becoming the 22nd commercial TV station in Japan and the second in Fukuoka. At the same time, RKB handed over the duties of the Seoul bureau to TBS, meaning that reporters from Tokyo would now cover Korean news to JNN. The network gave RKB the Bangkok bureau. In 2002, RKB was in charge of the Seoul bureau again.
Radio During its test period, Radio Kyushu only broadcast news and music programs. As a part of its efforts to become a full-fledged FM station by 2028, RKB Radio suspended its
Yukuhashi relay station (1062 kHz) alongside KBC's Yukuhashi relay (1485 kHz) on February 5, 2024. As of this writing, RKB Radio can be listened in Yukuhashi on its Wide FM relay (94.8 MHz), and nearby
Kitakyushu AM and FM relays (JOFO, 720 kHz, and Wide FM 91.5 MHz). Currently, the main Fukuoka AM station (JOFR, 1278 kHz), along with the Kitakyushu (JOFO, 720 kHz) and
Omuta (JOFE, 1062 kHz) relays are operating, with plans in place to effectively suspend AM operations within or before 2028. ==References==