EAS Order Encourages Local Alerts, a ‘Challenge’ for Satellite Radio
The FCC didn’t mandate state and local Emergency Alert System (EAS) compliance when it amended its EAS rules late last week. But the FCC strongly encouraged compliance by all EAS participants -- even non-local satellite radio - many times over in the order. The EAS may be designed to deliver emergency presidential messages on a national scale, but most emergencies occur at the state and local levels, the order noted in several places. The FNPRM asks what should be done to mend the disconnect.
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Services like satellite radio are designed to receive and send programming nationally, making targeted emergency alerts “challenging” at the least, the order said. So how, the FNPRM asks, can satellite radio and/or DBS be part of local alerts? What can they to do if EAS participants must transmit alerts by governors issued statewide, as the FNPRM also contemplates?
Satellite radio officials said they know Chmn. Martin has been bullish on emergency-related issues, but there are no clear answers to local questions. XM and Sirius each has a dedicated emergency station broadcasting nationally, plus nearly 24 traffic and weather channels apiece dedicated to the major metropolitan areas. Those stations relay emergency data, too. But the FCC is right, there’s no answer for “a local alert in Peoria, Illinois,” on satellite radio, said a Sirius spokesman.
Keeping satellite radio out of local broadcasting is important to the NAB, but this time it isn’t concerned, a spokesman said. “This is a very limited rule related to emergency information only and does nothing to reverse longstanding policy that satellite radio is a national service,” said the NAB spokesman. The NAB’s most recent satellite radio sticking point was a proposed XM acquisition of WCS spectrum, which satellite radio onlookers said would be perfect for localized multimedia services. XM’s application for transfer of WCS Wireless’s licenses has been removed from streamlined filing, an FCC spokeswoman confirmed.
It’s too early for an official position on the FCC’s encouragement of state and local alerts, the Sirius spokesman said. But it’s hard to forget “satellite radio doesn’t have the mandate to do local broadcasting and doesn’t have the infrastructure,” he said. XM didn’t comment by our deadline.