Former TBS Announcer Hiroko Ogura: “Are you serious?” The event that changed me from never reading newspapers

I am used to being photographed while moving, but it is embarrassing to be photographed in a certain pose. It makes me nervous.

Hiroko Ogura, 50, a freelance announcer, beams. Ogura left TBS at the end of last year. Ogura, who was active in a wide range of programs such as “Rank Kingdom” and “Tetsuya Chikushi’s NEWS23,” talked for two hours about her life as a female announcer at TBS, where she spent 27 years.

Ogura first became interested in the female TV announcing profession when she was in the early grades of elementary school.

The kicker was “Ore-tachi Hyokinzoku” (Fuji Television Network). What caught my attention were the female announcers in their glamorous outfits who hung out with the celebrities. In other programs, they read the news or preside as hosts. They seemed to be enjoying their work, which I thought was ‘unfair! I felt.

I’m paying my own tuition, so it’s okay.”

（When she was a student at Toyo Eiwa University, she attended an announcer school.

The instructor was very strict with me. I would show up late, saying, ‘It’s OK because I have to pay my own tuition,’ or I would bring my ski boards to class because I was going on a trip the next day. He scolded me, saying, ‘Are you really going to do this? I was scolded. That’s when I took a leap of faith. I checked the TV news programs every day and read all the national newspapers. Thanks to that, even though I had never read a newspaper before, I was able to grasp the world from multiple perspectives.

After hard work, he was accepted at TBS. As a rookie, he was in charge of morning information programs such as “Ohayo Whale” and “Hanamaru Market.

It was tough! Every day I would arrive at the office at 2 a.m. before daybreak. I couldn’t get used to the fact that I had to be asleep by 9:00 p.m. rather than getting up.

He was often in charge of sports.

I was often in charge of sports! Sports Power,’ I would ride in the passenger seat of a professional baseball player’s car and listen to him until he got home from the ballpark. There was no script, and we just went out there and did it. When I saw a piece of bread placed randomly on the ground, I said something like, ‘Athletes eat sweet buns, too, don’t they? ‘ and scolded me. …… It was a harrowing experience, but I think it was good training for me to ask questions in any situation.

Ogura grew into a full-fledged announcer while experiencing many adversities.

In the February 28 issue of “FRIDAY March 14-21” and the paid version of “FRIDAY GOLD,” she talks in detail about how she married her husband, former soccer player Takeshi Mizuuchi, and the real reason she left TBS. We also show some rare images of Ogura in her first two years with the company and her signature folk dance pose.

For more details and multiple photos, click here.

From the March 14-21, 2025 issue of FRIDAY