Japan’s public broadcaster NHK ended its Radio 2 broadcast education and culture programming on Monday.

The channel, which acted as the radio version of NHK Educational TV and broadcast mainly on AM, had been on air since 1931.

NHK had drafted a plan in 2021 to reformat the AM frequencies to merge its three radio services into two channels – “NHK AM” and “NHK FM,” and save around 37 billion yen ($231 million) over the next 20 years.

NHK FM absorbed most of the programs on Radio 2, mainly language courses. News reports in other languages will be provided on the “NHK World-Japan” app.

“Ways of consuming audio-based media are changing, but it does not mean the role of (Radio 2) is ending,” NHK Executive Vice President Hiroo Yamana said at a press conference last month.