Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013

Bilingual broadcaster Peter Barakan has been introducing Japanese listeners to Western rock for the past 25 years via programs like InterFM’s Barakan Beat—but sees declining interest among the young. How does he plan to fight the trend now that he’s the new director?

Metropolis caught up with Barakan at the InterFM offices to hear his strategy for Tokyo’s only “international” radio station.

What’s your plan as the newly appointed executive director?

I want to make InterFM a more listener-oriented station and it might be the only one in Tokyo that is going to be that way. One of my big beefs with Japanese radio is that the people making the shows seem to be thinking only about sponsors and they don’t seem to care what the listener wants or needs.

What’s your first priority?

I want to determine who are we broadcasting for. We’re not doing it for ourselves, we’re not doing it for the sponsors, we’re doing it for the listeners—and I think they are the people we need to be directing all of our efforts towards.

Any ratings goals?

Not in the short term. Maybe we’ll take a commercial hit for a while, but if we can create programming that people enjoy, I’m hoping that the listeners will start to come back. InterFM has always called itself “Tokyo’s #1 Music Station,” and as a DJ I’ve always felt that was a little bit off target. I thought we were the only music station. All of the other stations are talk-based. They play a little bit of music, but they don’t play a lot. And also, I’m going to change our station from “Tokyo’s #1 Music Station” to “The Real Music Station.” Obviously we have to live up to that. Part of being “The Real Music Station” means all of our shows will be about music in general.

What about language?

A lot of the programs will be Japanese-only, as they are now. Another change that I’m trying to make is to tighten up all the shows so that there’s more music and less talk, so that even if English-only speakers tune-in, yes the DJ might be speaking Japanese, but hopefully it’ll be enough music that it doesn’t matter.

How about musical content?

Foreign music in this country is being listened to by fewer and fewer people as the years go by because, ever since J-pop became the big thing, all other radio stations are playing pretty much nothing but J-pop. And, when that happens you have a whole generation of Japanese people around the age of 20 or maybe a little older who really haven’t listened to very much Western music. So, I want to try and preserve musical culture in this country. InterFM obviously can’t do that by itself, but we can definitely try and play a role in doing that. And, if this music isn’t on the airwaves, and people don’t hear it, it is going to be forgotten.

What do you do in your free time?

I like to listen to music, read books, watch movies—and a little more time to do all of that would be great. At my age—I’m over 60 now—I don’t require as much stimulation as I did when I was 30, so it’s a fairly easygoing life. I’m content. I’m not an ambitious man. I’ve never wanted to be rich and powerful—it’s nice to be comfortable, of course—but as long as I can control my own life, I don’t have any desire to control other people.

But now, you’re in a position where you have to control the lives and destinies of others…

You know, my management style is pretty laid back, it’s a fine balance and I don’t know if I have it right, but I’ll feel my way through it and we’ll see how we go.

Anything more you’d like to communicate to our readers?

You’ve heard InterFM through the years, hopefully you already like it. It’s going to get better. Please check us out from April onwards. Check out the various programs on different days of the week and different times of the day, let us know what you feel about it. Your feedback is always welcome.

Peter Barakan, weekday mornings 7-10am on InterFM 76.1