Broadcasters and minority advocates agreed that the Federal Emerg...
Broadcasters and minority advocates agreed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency must do more to educate people about emergency alert systems (EASs), said a summary of a June 14 meeting brokered by the FCC. “There was some confusion about…
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who played what role and general concern that FEMA” must do more outreach. Officials from NAB, the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) and Florida Association of Broadcasters met, summoned by the Public Safety Bureau to work toward a compromise on relaying alerts in languages other than English in disasters, storms and other emergencies. The meeting was mandated by an FCC order asking the parties to work out a way for broadcasters to carry alerts in languages other than English when foreign-language stations go off the air (CD July 13 p5). NAB officials told the meeting that they liked Florida’s model, in which the state emergency operations center uses Spanish-speaking interpreters to issue EAS alerts in that language. MMTC and other officials “strongly disputed that voluntary programs were sufficient to ensure adequately comprehensive multilingual EAS alerts and urged the Commission to take a more aggressive approach immediately,” the notes said. “Only NAB and Florida participants thought that voluntary programs would be sufficient to achieve universal or even widespread availability of multilingual EAS alerts.” A Florida broadcast official said disaster planning funds can be tough to get, adding that the state’s satellite-based alert distribution method “is relatively cheap,” said the note. Reacting to participants’ suggestions that the FCC involve more industries on EAS, the Public Safety Bureau said it will meet with cable operators, satellite providers and wireless cable companies.