It was 26 years ago on February 25 that Tatsuya Jo, a man I admired, passed away.
Mr. Jo is famous for his narration on FM Tokyo's Jetstream, which he did for 27 years, 7387 times.
When he was a student at Waseda University, he wanted to be a stage actor, but he was not tall enough at 162cm, so he turned to voice acting using his baritone voice and became popular as a voice over artist for Gregory Peck and Robert Wagner.
I first became a fan of Mr. Jo when he was the voice of Robert Wagner in "License to Spy," which aired from 1969.
He continued to be exposed to Mr. Jo's voice through voice acting and TV commercials.
Mr. Jo is known for Jetstream, but I couldn't listen to the program until I entered university and was able to listen to FM Fukuoka.
When did I first learn that Mr. Jo was from Beppu City and a senior at Beppu Tsurumigaoka High School?
When I was in college, I used to practice recording my Jetstream every day so that I could narrate like Mr. Jo.
When I listen to recordings from those days, my narration is so bad that I can't even hold a candle to Mr. Jo's.
In the end, I gave up my career as a voice actor and became an ordinary company employee.
When I lived in Sagamihara for a while, I felt closer to Mr. Jo when I learned that he also lived in Sagamihara City.
Even after almost 30 years, he still seems to have many fans, and you can find his jet stream recordings on YouTube, and you can listen to his narration not only on CDs and DVDs, but also on music streams these days.
I think the reason why his narration is still loved today is that there is something about it that is irreplaceable.
It's not like the narration on the radio show "Jetstream" where you just listen and it's over.
I think Mr. Jo's narration is a precious gift to me.
Thank you very much, Tatsuya Jo.
