Notice regarding Twitter live playlist and Tokyo train information services

With the acquisition of Twitter, many new policies have been put in place by Elon Musk and the current Twitter leadership.  

One of these changes regards those who use the Twitter Application Processing Interface (API) in order to send tweets.  For many years under the old leadership, access to this API has been free of charge as it was found that many of the tweets sent through the API only help enhance the quality and usability of Twitter. 

Now, Twitter has decided that those who send more than 1,000 tweets through the API must pay $100 per month for the privilege.  

J1 Radio and REC Networks currently operates multiple Twitter services, including those that may tweet more than 1,000 times per month and we are not able to justify these expenses, especially being a noncommercial educational broadcast service that receives no cash support other than from the operators of the station. 

As a result, we will be discontinuing the following Twitter services throughout May, 2023:

• J1 HITS Live Playlist
• J1 XTRA Live Playlist
• J1 GOLD Live Playlist
• J1 HD Live Playlist
• Southern California EAS
• Tokyo Travel Updates
• Japan Earthquake Information

We may be able to restore the earthquake and travel Twitters in the future.

For many years, these J1 services have been providing these convenient services to Japan and the world. 

We do note that the same restrictions that apply to us also apply to other Twitter API users including the various Japanese private railways as well as Metrolink, Metro and BART in the USA which also use these services.  Our ability to provide information over the air, the website and the mobile app may be further hampered by the actions being taken by Twitter. 

J1 currently does not use Twitter to obtain data for JR East, Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway and a few other municipal operators.  Road traffic information for J1 HD will also not be impacted. 

We will always try to seek alternative methods of delivering the information that people have depended on.  Please be patient with us as we deal wit this issue, which is way outside of our control. 

Thank you for following these Twitter accounts and thank you for listening to J1!