Multilingual Emergency Alert Test Killed
A 20-market test of a way to send multilingual emergency alerts is off after broadcasters and advocates for non- English speakers couldn’t agree, said discussion participants. In June, the sides asked the FCC to delay issuing rules telling stations how to tell non-English speakers about hurricanes and natural disasters (CD July 9 p6). They proposed to test the so-called designated hitter approach: When a radio station broadcasting other than in English goes off the air in a storm or the like, another station in the market agrees to carry alerts in the station’s language. But broadcasters didn’t get behind the approach.
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Each side blamed the other for the standoff over the test, and advocates for non-English speakers plan to ask the FCC to issue a multilingual alert order. “We walked, and it’s just unfortunate,” said Executive Director David Honig of the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council. He said he had thought broadcasters agreed to test the designated hitter plan. “Apparently it’s going to be necessary, regrettably, for the commission to impose rules,” he said. “It’s been three years” since Hurricane Katrina knocked out a Spanish-language station in New Orleans, depriving its listeners of access to alerts in that language.
At a July 17 meeting on the designated hitter test, all broadcasters present said they doubted its feasibility and they urged an alternative method, said Florida Association of Broadcasters President Pat Roberts. He said broadcasters never committed to a 20-market test, though Honig said that they had agreed in concept.
Florida broadcasters hope in late August to hammer out details of a plan in which all stations, regardless of language, agree to cover for one another if any go down in an emergency, Roberts said. Florida broadcasters will present a plan to the state to forward to the FCC that codifies such an arrangement, he said. He hopes the FCC will delay issuing rules until it reviews the Florida plan, a possible “template” for other states to expand similar arrangements.
The designated hitter plan doesn’t work, because it doesn’t take into account a backup station going off the air, said Roberts. “A designated hitter is the most absurd idea in the world. You can’t pick which station gets knocked off. Nobody can -- unless you're God.” Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies agree that the broadcasters’ plan works, said Roberts. But Honig disagreed. “It’s fatally flawed,” he said. “It doesn’t address what happened in Hurricane Katrina.” Before bad weather or other emergencies, broadcasters must work out how to cover for stations knocked off the air, Honig said.
The Council and allies discussed the test’s “failure” in a meeting last week with an aide to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, said an ex-parte filing Thursday. No test will take place, because of “the unwillingness of rank and rile broadcasters to volunteer to be designated hitters,” it said. “Self-regulation has not succeeded.” The Council, the United Church of Christ and the Spanish Radio Association soon will send a letter to the FCC formally withdrawing a request to delay an order, Honig said in an interview. The Council generally opposes broadcast regulation, but this case is different because it couldn’t be worked out privately, he said.
The FCC is “reviewing the situation to see what the next step should be,” said an agency spokeswoman. “We thought the situation was worked out.” The FCC had said it probably will grant the broadcasters’ and advocates’ request and put off a multilingual emergency alert order until year-end. Industry is “committed to finding practical solutions for distributing multilingual emergency information,” an NAB spokesman said. Broadcasters, he added, “still want to work with public interest groups and the Florida broadcasters in developing and implementing these practical solutions.”