The Flourishing Eighties

In September 1978 we published an extra issue of Audio Senka to mark the thirtieth anniversary of its inaugural publication and also announced the results of the first Audio Excellence Award. This award had attracted a lot of attention because the screening committee consisted of nine audio critics and an equal number of representatives from frontline retail stores specializing in the sale of audio equipment. Isamu Asano chaired the audio critics’ side, and Shichinojo Suzuki, the president of Tereon, chaired the retail side. On October 12 of this year the screening committee met for the fortieth time, so the award really has established an unshakeable position as the most prestigious prize in the industry.

In 1980 I made plans to hold a thank-you event for readers. Since the magazines do not emit any sounds, I thought, let’s give our readers the chance to actually experience equipment. Audio Accessory was doing well, and I wanted to give something back to them.

The first thank-you event took place at the Akihabara Radio Kaikan in Tokyo, but we were unable to attract an adequate number of participants on that occasion. We therefore decided to hold future events in the regions, where such gatherings are less common, and the second took place in Gunma. We visited audio stores in the prefecture to explain the purpose of the event and presented them with tickets. After visiting several stores, we managed to rope in more than 200 people. We also contacted Victor’s Maebashi Plant and carried out a large-scale publicity campaign through the media, visiting NHK, commercial television stations, and newspapers. This campaign was highly successful, with the event being featured in newspaper articles and introduced on NHK’s morning news program. As a result, the gathering itself was a great success as well. The audio critics Saburo Egawa and Hiroshi Saito gave talks on analog and digital equipment, respectively, and visitors were presented with goods and products provided by makers. Representatives from makers stayed overnight to help out without receiving any pay, so in the end it was much more than an event organized by our company alone. It was the Gunma event, and subsequent events followed this so-called Maebashi format.

They proved to be very popular too. Over the decade thank-you events were held four times a year in a total of 40 prefectures and attracted around 100,000 audio fans altogether. Since we compiled budgets and organized them out of our own pocket, we must have invested a total of nearly \200 million in the project, but it was worth it. The thank-you events really were a manifestation of our corporate philosophy of “contributing to the constructive development of the industry.” In particular, the event in Oita Prefecture, where I myself am from, was held with full support from Oita Broadcasting System Inc. and Oita Godo Shimbun Inc. and attracted more than 500 audio enthusiasts. It is still talked about today. Such events are being held in cities and towns around the country even now. As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect!” Today there are said to be many people who want to listen to music on audio equipment. Hopefully we can respond to their wishes.

Before the start of events, in the morning, I would hold an “Ongen Meeting” for representatives of retail stores at which I would explain my “four proposals,” which were very popular in the industry at that time, namely, the new mania declaration, the audio smartness theory, the design revolution, and the three visual principles. These four proposals received much praise as guidelines for the next step in creating demand, and they gave birth to the mini stereo component system boom. Led by Pioneer’s Private series, a new market was formed. Furthermore, it was around that time when I launched the Future Forum for executives from leading domestic makers, which was held three times a year and played a major role in building a consensus in the industry for new market creation, profitable business, and commodity tax refunds. Through this new market creation, the hi-fi stereo component system became the savior of the industry.