NPR’s Squawk Channel Problems Among Nationwide EAS Issues

During the 30-second test, the familiar EAS tones repeated during the simulation, instead of just occurring before the exercise to trigger it and afterwards to end it, cable and broadcast executives said. That obscured the alert’s audio saying it was just a test, but the message did come through, just garbled and hard to hear at points, they said. Our experience listening to NPR affiliate WAMU(FM) Washington was similar. NPR is “still assessing the results of the test,” a spokesman said. “Participating member stations have been asked to forward to us copies of their official reports” to the FCC, he continued. “Based upon that information, we'll be able to accurately determine the degree of success."

DirecTV and Dish Network were the only other major EAS participants to have widespread problems during the test, industry executives said. The audio feed couldn’t be heard at all in some instances during the exercise, although a fixed message on the screen from DirecTV clearly said it was a test. The company, which has also said it’s looking into the issue, declined further comment. Dish was “waiting for the test signal to come through, and the test signal did not come through” from a radio station in Denver and one in Cheyenne, Wyo., which the DBS company would have passed on to subscribers, a spokesman said. “For some reason, we did not get the signal that triggers the monthly alerts yesterday. But we were prepared; we were ready.” FCC and FEMA officials issued written statements saying the exercise served its intended purpose to thoroughly test EAS.

Some cable systems didn’t send out the alert at all, because their encoder-decoders which get the alerts and then pass them onto subscribers, didn’t work properly, industry executives said. And they said some TV stations also had problems, including NBC affiliate WRC Washington, owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal. Those were isolated problems, executives said. “In many places, the Emergency Alert Notification flowed through to viewers without a hitch,” the NCTA said late Wednesday. “However, we also know that in some places, it did not. Today’s test was designed specifically to identify the gaps among all EAS participants that exist in the current alert system."

Most cable operators successfully got the EAS test, industry executives said. They said there were isolated equipment issues at some operators, where encoder-decoders didn’t work, and in other circumstances the audio that the systems received couldn’t be heard as intended. NCTA isn’t aware of any cable operators that were receiving the EAN message directly from the Squawk Channel, “so it doesn’t appear to be an issue that we encountered” an association spokesman said.

The test ran “well” at about 65 percent of the 50 American Cable Association member companies that told ACA about the test, President Matt Polka said. “Others had problems: They had the proper equipment, they received the tones, but the audio was garbled.” There also were situations where because of “glitches” the simulated messages weren’t passed through by operators to subscribers, he added. “There is more work to be done,” he said: “We have a basis to go forward and fix these issues and get it right” with the next nationwide test. Industry officials have predicted that the government may run nationwide exercises every year.

The upshot is that the test worked exactly as intended, executives from commercial and non-commercial broadcasters and from cable operators agreed. That’s because FEMA successfully for the first time sent out an emergency action notification nationwide. The EAN was then picked up quickly by the several dozen primary entry point (PEP) stations that are conduits between the agency and EAS participants, which include all broadcasters and MVPDs as well as satellite radio. NPR’s Squawk Channel also immediately picked up the EAN, and immediately passed it onto the stations taking that feed instead of getting the alert from their closest PEP station. So while the audio was garbled on many NPR affiliates and other radio stations and MVPDs whose test alert originated with the Squawk Channel, the simulation was passed onto viewers and listeners.

Alaska sat out the test. The state has twice tested EAS across Alaska, the only state to do so. It didn’t take part Wednesday because of a severe winter storm, said Chris Brandt, an engineer with GCI, Alaska’s No. 1 cable operator. There’s “a lot of flooding and coastal damage” from the storm, said Brandt, co-chair of the state’s industry-organized committee on EAS. “A lot of the areas that would have been affected are the ones that would have been getting the EAN” from FEMA at the same time as an actual weather alert may have come, he added: “It was a wise decision” to cancel the test. For the DBS companies, since they operate nationwide, “there’s no way to not carry it for them,” he said of the exercise. “There’s no way to say don’t include Alaska."

Alaska early last week asked to be excused from the nationwide test, because of the coming storm, a FEMA spokeswoman said. “To help support state and local officials and minimize any unnecessary confusion for Alaska residents, FEMA was able to exclude Alaska from the nationwide test.” The agency continues to collect data on any systemic problems, a process that will continue in coming weeks, the spokeswoman said. “Based on preliminary results, the test was received on TVs and radios in a majority of the markets, and in some areas the test was not received."

"As we have explained throughout this process, the value of the test is in its assessment function,” said a statement Wednesday night from the FCC and FEMA. “We were able to accomplish that today -- in a comprehensive way.” It’s goal “has always been to do exactly what happened -- to test this decades-old system to see what works well, and what upgrades or changes are needed as we further work to modernize our nation’s public alert and warning system.” The 30,000-plus EAS participants have 45 days to report to the FCC how the test went, the agencies said. But it’s unclear when some filing deadlines are, said broadcast lawyer Harry Cole of Fletcher Heald, who has criticized some paperwork issues with FCC documents on the test. “The FCC has not made it entirely clear what it expects of licensees.”

The test “worked as advertised from our end,” said Chief Technology Officer Gil Maxwell of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. The network’s seven radio stations received on-time at 2 p.m. EST the test from the Squawk Channel, and passed it onto all EAS participants in the state, he said. “Like everyone else, I wish the audio would have been better.” Among EAS participants, the message “seemed to propagate quickly, and get out and about,” Maxwell said: “We did what we were supposed to do, and repeated what came in."

Government and industry officials alike are puzzled about what caused the audio issue on the Squawk Channel, said executives including Maxwell and Maine Association of Broadcasters President Suzanne Goucher. Maine has no PEP station, with the closest one WBZ in Boston, so the state relies on the NPR satellite channel to relay EAS (CD Oct 19 p7). “I can categorically declare it was a 100 percent success in Maine,” Goucher said. “It was very sweet” and “I am begging and pleading with the FCC and FEMA to make sure that the Squawk Channel remains a permanent part of the EAS relay system,” she said. “We got the message. The extra set of tones, five seconds in, kind of screwed things up, but we got the message, which was kind of the important part. It really did prove our ability to receive and relay a national alert message."

Audio quality “will be priority No. 1 to fix before the next test,” said President Paul Rotella of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association. “Due to the multi-activations emanating from FEMA, PBS and NPR, PEP stations had equipment which either shut down the audio or shut down the test. Equipment will be priority number two to fix before the next test.” PBS’s member stations participated in the EAS test on a local basis, a spokeswoman noted: The public-TV programmer at “the national level did not play a role” in the exercise. “FEMA sent out a product -- right on time,” Rotella noted. “The PEP stations received the product. Right on time. In New Jersey, the message was propagated by our broadcasters to stations downstream, as planned. That is a great success for a first-time effort.”