On August 26th, we published our inaugural post, and set out to begin Trans-Pacific Radio by producing Seijigiri, a podcast discussion program focusing on the Japanese and East Asian political scene. On September 14th, we published the announcement that we had transferred our first gigabyte of audio data from the site, eighteen days after our first release.

In October, however, we did not post anything ‘about’ Trans-Pacific Radio. We focused on developing our programs, improving sound quality, and rolling out the Shasetsu and TPR News programs.

Later in November, we plan to debut our latest effort, tentatively titled the Business of Japan (BOJ) podcast. We have other programs in the early developmental stages, but no announcements on those quite yet…

Today, it has been a Happy Halloween indeed for us here at TPR - we’re getting more and more visitors, who are listening to more and more podcasts every day, right up to today, which has been our biggest day ever and it’s not even over yet. With this in mind, thanks are in order.

In our brief history, we’ve been fortunate enough to receive the help of people from all over in all sorts of ways.

Albrecht Stahmer was kind enough to come on and talk about Yasukuni Shrine with us on Seijigiri nos. 3 and 4, which remain two of our most popular podcasts. Jarad Dickinson contributed an essay on George W. Bush and the War on Terror to kick off Shasetsu. Mike Missiaen and Angelo Foscoli recorded an engaging conversation on the relationship between borrowed words and Future Shock, that we hope will be the first of a forthcoming series called Words on Words; and Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson has generously allowed us to reprint some of the opinion polls he translates and posts on his site What Japan Thinks. Our heartiest thanks and a standing invitation to come back again go out to all of them. They broadened the horizons of TPR in it’s infancy, and were a great help in improving its productions.

Many of you were able to find the fruits of their labor due to the assistance and cooperation of some of our fellow podcasters, who mentioned us, linked to us, and spoke too kindly of us. Copious thanks and sincere debts of gratitude go out to Dr. Robert C. Angel, who created and maintains the Japan Considered Project, including its fine podcast, at the University of South Carolina; Rich Pav of the always amusing and unfailingly honest Herro Flom Japan; Scott Lockman, Japan’s First Podcaster, who produces Tokyo Calling; and Doug DeLong and Amy Chavez of the quirky Planet Japan. They’re all examples of the kind of good people that podcasting attracts.

Last, but certainly not at all least, we’d like to thank you, dear reader. All of you who visited the site, voted for us on all the ranking and agglomerating sites on which we are listed, e-mailed us, commented on this site, told your friends about us, streamed, downloaded, and, most of all, listened, thank you. Without your continued support and interest, there would be no point in doing any of this and we’d have to go back to having free time.

Keep us busy.

- Ken Worsley & Garrett De Orio