is a

TV station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

affiliated with Fuji News Network (FNN) and Fuji Network System (FNS) serving in

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, headquartered in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

, established in 1971. Through its Hakodate translator, UHB functions as the default FNN affiliate for most of neighboring

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

to the south, as that area does not have an FNN affiliate of its own.

History

In October 1969, the Ministry of Post (currently the Ministry of Internal Communications) approved the fourth TV license in Hokkaido, which attracted 59 companies to apply. At that time, both Hokkaido Shimbun and Fuji Television were interested in obtaining television licenses. With the help of the prefectural government of Hokkaido, the 59 applicant companies were then integrated into Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting centered on Hokkaido Shimbun and Fuji TV, and officially obtained a license in May 1971. The broadcaster was founded on June 19, 1971 and began trial broadcasts on January 14, 1972 prior to the 1972 Winter Olympics, the first of a kind in Asia. At exactly 07:20am on April 1, 1972, UHB began broadcasting with "Today's Weather" being the first program to be broadcast. When it first commenced broadcasts, coverage area was just at 66% of households (initially at Sapporo, Hakodate, Asahikawa, and Muroan) and increased after half a year to 81.9% (expanding to Obihiro, Kushiro, and Abashiri). In 1981, Fuji TV assisted UHB in producing the TV drama series From The Northern Country (aired between 1981-2002), which was an unprecedented success. It achieved more than 20% in ratings, and also promoted tourism in the Furano area, where the drama is produced. In 1991, UHB becomes responsible for FNN's Moscow bureau. On October 1, 1983, UHB introduced its current logo featuring lowercase letters. They also started using an

electronic news gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronics, electronic video and sound recording and reproduction, audio technologies by journalist, reporters to gather and present news instead of using film camera ...

(ENG) in 1982 and stereo sound and bilingual broadcasting in 1984 Digital terrestrial broadcasts commence in Sapporo on June 1, 2006 and ceased analog broadcasts on July 24, 2011.

References

External links

The official website of Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting
Fuji News Network Television stations in Japan Television channels and stations established in 1972 Mass media in Sapporo {{japan-company-stub