The short version
- Crossover Eleven (クロスオーバーイレブン) was NHK FM's 11 pm programme from November 1978 to March 2001. It traded off between single pieces of music and short stories read aloud, which the show called "scripts".
- Search NHK's broadcast records for Tangerine Dream and the programme's first part comes up on 11 January and 1 August 1994 and on 16 March 1995. Vangelis turns up on the first part on 4 August 1994.
- The records give the date, the time, the programme and who was on air. They do not say what was played.
- In 2024 NHK said only twenty-odd recordings survive from more than 22 years of regular broadcasts.
Tuesday 11 January 1994, 11:05 pm. NHK's broadcast records say that at this time the FM network aired part one of Crossover Eleven. The performer column holds one name, the actor Masane Tsukayama. And this one line is what comes up when you search for Tangerine Dream. Which piece it was, nothing says.
An 11 pm music show
The show began with trial broadcasts on 25 December 1977. It went into the regular schedule on 23 November 1978 and signed off for the last time on 29 March 2001, a run of more than 22 years.
The pattern never changed much. It opened with three or so pieces back to back. After that a reading and a single piece of music took turns, and at the end came three more pieces before the close. The readings were called scripts: some were one-off stories, some were series with recurring characters. Just before the music came in, the narrator slowed down and spaced out the last few syllables. The music was mostly Western, from instrumentals and easy listening through to rock and pop. When NHK described the show in 2024, it called it a music programme built from well-chosen music and little dramas known as scripts.
For the first few years the reader changed every year. The actor Renji Ishibashi read the first regular broadcasts in 1978, and Masane Tsukayama took over in April 1982 and stayed until the end. From 1981 the show opened with "Vôo Sobre O Horizonte" by the Brazilian group Azymuth and closed with Azymuth's "Outubro". The sign-off had not changed since 1980: soon the clock will pass midnight, the moment when today meets tomorrow, and then the names of that night's writer and narrator.
Part one and part two
In April 1988 NHK FM extended its broadcast day to 1 am, and the show split in two. Part one kept the readings and the music. Part two came on after the midnight time signal, and from April 1993 it ran differently: Megumi Yoshimoto introduced the week's theme at the start and the end, and in between the music played without a word. On the 1994 schedule, part one ran Monday to Thursday from 11:10 pm to midnight, and part two from midnight to 1 am.
The (Ⅰ) and (Ⅱ) after the programme name in NHK's records are those two parts. All three times Tangerine Dream comes up in the regular run, it is (Ⅰ), the part with the readings. All three times, Tsukayama is in the performer column.
Vangelis appears in both parts. On 18 November 1993, 21 February 1995 and 9 April 1996 he is on the midnight part two, with Yoshimoto on air. On 4 August 1994 and on 22 January and 14 February 1996 he is on the 11:10 part one.
The first week of August 1994 stands out. Tangerine Dream on part one on Monday the 1st, Vangelis on part one on Thursday the 4th: same week, same hour, same narrator. What stories were read on those two nights, the records do not say.
What the records leave out
That is as far as the records go. They do not say which piece, how long it ran, or which story it followed. The sound itself is hard to get back. On 15 January 2024 NHK said that of the regular broadcasts from 1978 to 2001, only twenty-odd had been kept, and asked listeners for cassette tapes they had recorded off air.
The show did come back a few times after the regular run ended. It returned for one week in 2005, and on 24 March that year CDs built on its format came out from two labels, Sony Music Japan International and Victor Entertainment. From the summer of 2009 it came back as summer and New Year specials, still with Tsukayama reading. Tangerine Dream comes up in one of those too. At midnight on 21 August 2018 NHK FM aired episode one of Crossover Eleven 2018 Summer, "廃校の夢 (記憶の博物館)", "Dream of a Closed School (Museum of Memory)". The performer column lists Tsukayama and Eiji Ogura, a name Japanese Wikipedia gives among the show's music selectors.
How to listen
Around 11:10 pm, put on one side of a Tangerine Dream record. When a piece ends, read a short story out loud, then go on to the next piece. It is 50 minutes to midnight. With words between the pieces, your ears rest and then go back in, and the first sound of each piece lands more clearly than when the music runs straight on. If Tangerine Dream is new to you, our Tangerine Dream guide picks the first record for you.
If you send a friend one track, make it Azymuth's "Vôo Sobre O Horizonte". It is not Tangerine Dream. For 20 years it was how the show opened the night.
In 2024, what NHK went looking for was its listeners' cassette tapes.
Where to get it
With no titles in the 1994 records, there is no single record to point to. If you are buying Tangerine Dream for the first time, start with the first record in the guide.