The story of how a “genius” saved me 15 years ago

“Everyone! Good morning! It’s the genius... Yokoyama!”

9:00 AM, Tuesday through Friday. I start my workday listening to this line and this voice.

At first, I wondered, “A genius...?” and even seriously thought, “Is this voice recorded?” because the tone and rhythm were exactly the same every single day. But it was, without a doubt, the live voice of RCC announcer Yuji Yokoyama.

Heisei Radio Variety 'Gozen-sama-sama' is a radio program that started in March 2003. It is broadcast from RCC Broadcasting in Hiroshima, Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 11:55 AM.

Yokoyama-san is the personality for Tuesday through Friday.

There are three female announcers who serve as his partners.
Tuesday: Renka Karasawa
Wednesday: Yuki Nakane
Thursday & Friday: Saki Fuchigami

There is laughter,
there are tears,
there are dirty jokes,
and there are genuine complaints about the company (RCC). (It’s funny)

That wouldn't fly in Tokyo due to compliance violations! I love Yokoyama-san’s love-filled sharp tongue, which people say is impossible in Tokyo. 'Gozen-sama-sama' listeners are teased without mercy, even those whose emails are read every day, and sometimes they are even told, “Are you an idiot!”

Even so, they keep sending emails every day, so I can only call them masochists. Yokoyama-san has actually said this himself, and I think the listeners realize it too.

I am a masochist myself. As I diligently type emails to the program, I go through trial and error, thinking this and that. Sometimes they really don't get read, but I think I've gotten the hang of it quite a bit.

I started listening to 'Gozen-sama-sama' in the summer of 2022.
I knew the program existed, but I wasn't very familiar with the tool called radio.

While working from home, I would listen to music on Apple Music or turn on the TV because the silence felt lonely. But music drains my phone battery like crazy, and I end up watching the TV, so I can't get any work done.

That was when my husband recommended radio.

My husband, who often listens to the radio at his workplace, would frequently talk about 'Gozen-sama-sama'. It was my husband who taught me about radiko, a smartphone app that lets you listen to radio broadcasts, and it was also my husband who taught me how fun the program is.

I downloaded radiko right away. The first thing I listened to was 'Masanori Honmyo’s Ohayo Radio', another RCC Broadcasting program that airs right before 'Gozen-sama-sama'. It felt nostalgic somehow. He reads various newspaper articles in a lighthearted, conversational tone. Honmyo-san’s voice is nice, his voice.

Within that 'Ohayo Radio', there is a 10-minute program called 'Tetsuya Takeda: Kesa no Sanmai-oroshi'. The theme song used there was a song I had heard so many, many, many times that I could play it on the piano right now.

That’s it! My mom used to listen to this!

That was the moment my heart was firmly captured by the radio before I even listened to 'Gozen-sama-sama'. Memories from when I was about in the sixth grade of elementary school came flooding back. Come to think of it, my mom used to listen to the radio in front of her vanity while doing her makeup before leaving for work in the morning. This song was playing then.

Thinking about things like that, I listen to 'Gozen-sama-sama'. My computer is at hand, and my eyes are firmly fixed on the screen. And so, my style of working while listening to the radio began.

And then, the opening line. Every single day, every day, every day, I listen to “Everyone! Good morning! It’s the genius... Yokoyama!” The morning begins.

Less than a month after I started listening, I tried sending an email.
My radio name is the nickname I had in high school, but I regret it now.An average of over 200,000 people listen (as of the announcement on August 17, 2023, the average listenership for Gozen-sama-sama is 4.6%, and 1% of RCC's listenership is about 46,000 people)—there is no way someone I know isn't listening to a local program like that.

But, what's done is done. And if, by some slim chance, a fellow listener sees this note... please, don't bring it up. Sorry.

So.
The chances of your first email to a radio show being read are extremely high. Is it beginner's luck? And it gets read. Elated, I send an email the next day, and the day after that too. I increase the number of programs I write emails to. I increase the number of emails I send to a single program.

Hmm, this is getting in the way of work.

Since I had no choice, I decided to make it a rule to send only one email per program, separate from the ones for prize quizzes, to manage my radio activities. (Currently, this rule has been broken.)

As I listened, I gradually got to know the listeners. There are people whose emails are read almost every day. I suppose their writing length or content makes it easy to insert into any part of the show. The probability of my emails, which I wrote as if to show off, being read was hit or miss.

Soon after I started listening to the radio, I learned about “Program Monitor Recruitment” in a program commercial.

It was a job where you watch and listen to not just radio, but also RCC television programs, and send in your feedback. I had seen the words “monitor recruitment” in TV commercials many times before, but I had never even thought about applying.

Oh, I thought, and applied immediately.
The application form included a test where you had to pick one program and send feedback, and while I thought to myself that my reputation as a writer would be ruined if I didn't pass this, I somehow managed to get in.

For six months, it was monitor work where I would listen to programs at designated dates and times, submit reports, and receive a reward every month. When I submitted my first report, I received an email saying,

(Sorry to the person in charge, I really am posting it exactly as it was.)

I cried.

During the six-month monitor period, I watched and listened to various programs, had the reports I wrote corrected, and it was fun. Since I was being paid, I guess it counts as work. Even so, writing and having my work corrected felt completely different from the work I usually do; it was a sensation I had never experienced before, different from my hobby blog or the article writing I do for work.

Listening to the radio as a companion to my work was supposed to be my initial stance, but now the radio has become my work. It was so much fun that even after the monitor period ended, it became a habit to listen to the radio from the morning until the children came home in the evening.

One day, there was a theme for that.
“Gozen-sama-sama” has a listener-participation segment called “Gozen-sama Meeting” where a weekly theme is set, and at that time, it was “Newcomer Struggle Diary”.

I sent an email about my “Newcomer Struggle Diary as a Housewife”.
I got married at 21 and my husband at 20, but I hadn't even pressed a single button on a washing machine before that. Well~~~ I was raised very spoiled, and I think from the outside, it must have looked like playing house.

You try your best with things like deep-frying, right? But you know, the tonkatsu and karaage I fried were pink in the middle. The simmered dishes were either hard or too salty with soy sauce.

I was too sloppy when it came to food, and my husband was not. He became the breadwinner in his early twenties, worked, his friends were out playing, and he would come home tired only to be served food like this. Even though it was a path he chose himself, of course, he would explode.

But I would tell myself, 'I've never done this before, so I don't know how!' while half-crying every day, and while raising my eldest son in my womb, I always made dinner. I could have just lined up some store-bought side dishes and welcomed my husband home with a smile, saying 'Thanks for your hard work!', but for some reason, I barely relied on store-bought food back then.

Remembering those days, thinking about how young and foolish I was, I sent an email to 'Gozen-sama' thinking of it as just one of those anecdotes to share.

I thought Mr. Yokoyama would probably listen to this email and say things like, 'That's what you get for getting married without a plan!' or 'Oh, no way!' But after Ms. Kawamura (the Thursday/Friday personality at the time) finished reading my email,

Mr. Yokoyama said.

With that first remark, 'But that's admirable!', the entirety of my 15-years-younger self was saved.

I had been listening to Ms. Kawamura's voice with excitement, thinking, 'It got read!', but the moment I heard Mr. Yokoyama say 'That's admirable,' I burst into tears. Just hearing those few words made me cry uncontrollably. I was surprised at how the tears just came on their own.

If you keep cooking almost every day for nearly 15 years, you'll inevitably improve your skills. Now, I can make almost anything my husband or children ask for, and they praise me by saying it's delicious.

But back then, it wasn't like that. It was a tough time, plagued by negative feelings of things not going well, the food not tasting good, and feeling guilty. You might say my husband should have just cooked, but even though I was pregnant, I was a stay-at-home wife, and I absolutely hated the idea of making my husband cook after he had been working long hours at a restaurant.

My husband would have gladly done it. In fact, when I was hospitalized for a week due to threatened premature labor in my third trimester, he did the laundry, cooked dinner, and cleaned the house after coming home, taking over for me while I was mostly bedridden for a month after being discharged.

So, back then, I was sinking into a negative swamp on my own, caught between the guilt of feeding him my not-so-tasty home cooking and my own stubbornness about not wanting to make him do housework. It's a bad habit of mine.

I somehow managed to overcome that gloomy period and reached where I am today. I never imagined that someone would praise me for something I did over 10 years ago by calling it 'admirable.' And on the radio, no less. By someone who is neither a friend nor family.

It was self-indulgent, but I really wanted to thank Mr. Yokoyama, so I went to see him.

Writing it like this might make people think I was stalking him, but 'Gozen-sama' has two 5-minute news segments during its roughly 3-hour broadcast. During that time, Mr. Yokoyama leaves the studio to go to a smoking area outside the RCC building to have a cigarette. During these mere 5 minutes (twice a day), listeners go to see Mr. Yokoyama. This is the 'Gozen-sama' specialty known as the 'Yokoyama Pilgrimage'.

I've also been on the Yokoyama Pilgrimage several times. I'm glad I have a job that allows me to move around during the day. Isn't that the biggest advantage of working from home? It doesn't cause any issues if my child is sick and stays home from school, and I can go on a Yokoyama Pilgrimage as soon as I feel like it.

The Mr. Yokoyama I met in person is someone who always uses polite language and treats everyone with care. It might be expected, but he was someone whose 'politeness' really stood out. Even when there are multiple listeners, he always talks to everyone and carefully says thank you to each person.

By the way, when you go on a Yokoyama Pilgrimage, you get one of these stickers. They change daily, and since there are some I don't have yet, I want to complete the set. Believe it or not, these stickers are made by Mr. Yokoyama at his own expense.

Then, at the end of 2023, when I went on the last Yokoyama Pilgrimage of the year, I handed him a letter along with a small gift. It contained things like what I've written here. A letter that would take less than 2 minutes to read. Even so, I worried about whether it was right to take up even a little bit of a busy person's time. Even if I called it a thank you, it was just my own selfishness, and maybe I should have just said it in person when I went to see him. But I gave it to him anyway.

I don't know if he read it or not. Because Mr. Yokoyama is always running around meeting people without a break, it's hard to get him to remember my radio name or my face just by going on a few Yokoyama Pilgrimages. Even though my emails have been read on the program dozens of times, I don't know if he connects that to the person who handed him the letter.

But you accepted it. And, I assume, you probably read it.

In the future, if I keep visiting Yokoyama-san and get you to remember my face and name perfectly, I think I will try to tell you about that letter then.

And even now, I am still listening to "Gozen-sama".

“Everyone! Good morning! It is I, the genius... Yokoyama!”

My morning began with the voice of a genius.