Early history

After the establishment of the "Three Radio Laws" (Radio Law, Broadcasting Law, and Radio Supervisory Committee Establishment Law) in 1950, Japan established a system where public broadcasting (NHK) and commercial broadcasting coexisted.^[1]: 4–5

Among the 16 companies that were able to receive the license, two of them are from Fukuoka Prefecture: Radio Kyushu (later renamed RKB Mainichi Broadcasting) and Nishinippon Broadcasting (not related to RNC in Kagawa Prefecture).^[1]: 7 However, due to the latter failing to raise enough funds, the license was then returned in January 1952.^[1]: 11 But the then founders of Nishinippon Broadcasting, Shigetomo Nakahara, did not give up and applied for a radio broadcasting license in 1953, which was then granted on May of the same year.^{[1]: 12–14} With financial support from the Asahi Shimbun, Nishinippon Broadcasting was then renamed to Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting on August 18, 1953.^[1]: 21

Founding

The Asahiya Department Store (later Kurume Izutsuya) which was the initial headquarters of KBC until it moved to Fukuoka City in 1956. The building closed down in February 2009 and was later demolished.

Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting then opened on August 21, 1953^[3] with its headquarters initially located in the Asahiya Department Store in Kurume City.^{[1]: 22–23} On December 24, 1953, KBC began trial radio broadcasts,^[1]: 24 which officially started broadcasting on New Year's Day of 1954.^[1]: 25

In 1956, KBC received an expansion license for its radio broadcast to extend its coverage to whole of Fukuoka.^{[1]: 52–53}As part of its radio expansion, they permanently moved their headquarters to the Hananoseki Building in Nakasu, Fukuoka City on November 30, 1956.^{[1]: 57–58, 60}

Expansion to television broadcasting

In October 1956, KBC applied for a TV broadcasting license for the Fukuoka City and Kokura areas.^[1]: 73 However, at that time, multiple companies applied for a TV license in the prefecture. Under the mediation of the Ministry of Post (currently the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications), KBC received their license on October 22, 1957.^{[1]: 78–82}

After obtaining their license, KBC then planned to move its headquarters to Nagahama, Fukuoka City in order to meet the facility requirements for TV broadcasting.^[1]: 91 Prior to the start of TV broadcasting, KBC management made it clear it will broadcast as a dual affiliate to both Fuji TV and Nippon Educational Television (NET) (current TV Asahi).^[1]: 96 On July 15, 1958, KBC established its relay transmitter in Kokura City in Kitakyushu as part of its preparations for TV broadcasting.^[1]: 63

KBC started its TV operations on March 1, 1959 at 10am.^[1]: 98 At that time it allotted to air at least 70% of programs from Nippon Educational Television and 30% of programs from Fuji TV.^{[1]: 100–101} In July 1961, KBC obtained another license for the whole of Kitakyushu City in Fukuoka and started to place its relay transmitters on Mount Sarakura.^[1]: 120 Fuji TV programming has been dropped completely on the TV schedules of KBC on October 1, 1964 after Television Nishinippon decided to become part of FNN/FNS as their primary affiliate.^[1]: 120 This resulted to the increase of the time allotment for NET programming to 78%, with local programming increased to 22%.^{[1]: 139–145} Color TV started on April 1, 1967.^{[1]: 159, 161}

In 1969, the Fukuoka District Court requested four television stations, including KBC (the other three being RKB Mainichi Broadcasting, Television Nishinippon, and NHK Fukuoka), to submit news footage of college students protesting the docking of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Sasebo Port, but Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting refused to do so on the grounds that it infringed on press freedom. The newsreel was returned in December of the same year.^[1]: 196

1970s - present

In 1978, KBC opened its first ANN News Bureau in Vienna.^[1]: 226 KBC started TV broadcasting in stereo sound since 1982.^{[1]: 323–324} On April 1, 1987, KBC opened its current headquarters.^[4] KBC then achieved broadcasting for 24 hours everyday since April 1, 1996.^[3] KBC started digital TV broadcasting on December 1, 2006 and stopped analog broadcasting on July 24, 2011.^[3]