To build the Nanako system, FM Wakayama also used Amazon Cognito to strengthen application security. “Although Amazon Polly and Amazon Cognito are both new services, we were able to access them using tools we were familiar with, like JavaScript, PHP, and Perl. Not having to learn new technologies was one reason we were able to complete development so quickly. What’s more, the cost of Amazon Polly is just 400–800 yen per year. One service we considered for deployment several years ago cost 1,200 times that price. That’s stunning value for money," says Yamaguchi.

Nanako soon had a chance to prove her effectiveness during a disaster. In September 2017, Typhoon 18 hit Wakayama with devastating force, leaving up to 4,400 households without power. Nanako continued to provide weather and disaster information throughout the entire five hours of the typhoon’s passage. Nor was this a simple repeated recording. The script was updated as FM Wakayama received new information, and Amazon Polly was used to ensure the latest version was always aired. Among all the television and radio stations, only FM Wakayama and Nanako was able to broadcast continually and provide updated information.

With the successful debut of the Amazon Polly–enabled AI announcer Nanako, FM Wakayama no longer needs to have on-air staff on call as typhoons approach. Using Nanako has become the baseline for times of disaster, and the station has come to view Nanako as the first choice to provide public service announcements for sudden, major emergencies. Over time, Nanako has gain widespread support among FM Wakayama’s listeners, who consider her one of the station’s major on-air personalities.

“We’re already able to broadcast the latest news even in the middle of the night, and keep up as circumstances change during disasters. Nanako has made possible the kind of broadcasting we couldn’t do with humans alone. In that light, I think it’s fair to say that Amazon Polly has reinvented radio,” says Yamaguchi.