Eagle West Communications gets no break on an $8,000 FCC fine for violating emergency alert system rules at its Mesa, Ariz., cable system, said an Enforcement Bureau order released Wednesday. The bureau upheld its issuance of a forfeiture order against Eagle Nest for an EAS equipment violation. The cable operator sought reconsideration, saying it had acted to install and operate the required gear.

Pat Mitchell, who stepped down in June 2006 as CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service, made $751,489 in FY 2006, vastly out-earning other national public broadcasting organization heads, according to the latest Form 990 filings with the IRS. Mitchell’s remuneration included a $48,868 employee benefit program payment and “some end of contract items,” PBS said, declining to give a breakdown. Mitchell left PBS to head the Museum of TV & Radio.

Getting emergency alerts to non-English speakers is a goal of satellite broadcasters, but all face technical limitations in attempting to do so. Satellite TV and radio are national services, which complicates the task of providing local alerts, the FCC was told last week in comments. XM and Sirius jointly suggested providing emergency alerts on their channels dedicated to foreign languages. To do that, they need to receive the messages in those languages, they said. EchoStar can deliver two audio streams, allowing it “to offer national, bilingual EAS messages -- as long as the EAS message is provided by a government agency in a dual-audio format,” it said. EchoStar doesn’t want to scroll the same message in multiple languages, it said. “Scrolling of foreign languages is contrary to the time-sensitive nature of emergency situations,” it said. Nearly one American in five doesn’t speak English, EchoStar said, citing 2000 Census Bureau data, but a “ubiquitous national solution would be a poor fit” given the 380 languages spoken in the U.S. Local broadcasters should have the latitude to reach out appropriately to those who speak neither English nor Spanish, EchoStar said. DirecTV said it can pass through multiple audio feeds. For hearing impaired viewers, it suggested passing text messages through its closed- captioning system. “Because persons with hearing disabilities generally activate closed captioning, this should be a particularly effective way to reach them during a national emergency,” DirecTV said.

The FCC shouldn’t automatically let cities and counties initiate emergency alerts, now triggered only by the President and by state authorities, said broadcasters, cable operators and telecommunications companies. Responding to a rulemaking, some TV industry filers said municipalities should send alerts to state agencies for redistribution to broadcast, cable and telco TV. A municipal body said authorizing cities to sound alerts would improve safety in disasters. Talks continue on multilingual alerts between broadcasters and advocates for people who don’t speak English (CD Nov 7 p4), another subject of the rulemaking, a participant said.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told fellow commissioners in an official communication that the agency won’t vote at the Dec. 18 agenda meeting on rules for emergency alert system warnings to cellphones and other wireless devices. Martin hopes for a vote before the meeting, though some fellow commissioners still are studying concerns raised by wireless carriers, sources said Tuesday.

Participants in FCC-brokered talks on multilingual emergency alerts said they're optimistic a compromise can be reached between broadcasters and minority advocates on how radio and TV stations can inform foreign-language speakers of storms and other large-scale emergencies. The sides have been talking most of the time since commissioners voted May 31 to defer action on rules for how broadcasters should handle multilingual alerts, said Minority and Media Telecommunications Council (MMTC) Executive Director David Honig. In approving an order setting emergency alert rules for pay-TV providers, commissioners gave activists and industry time to work out an agreement on how English- language broadcasters should handle alerts when Spanish- language stations are knocked off the air during storms (CD Aug 16 p5).

Sending emergency text alerts to cellphone users poses significant challenges, panelists said last week during a panel discussion at the VON conference in Boston. Many consumers don’t know how to sign up for alerts, and those who do may experience “alert fatigue” and ignore them, they said, but new technologies and policies could change things for the better. “The roadmap going forward, while cloudy, looks very promising,” said Joe Walsh, SquareLoop chief operating officer.

Members of the FCC’s Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee clashed Wednesday on whether their final report specifically should state that carriers may pass on to consumers some costs tied to sending alerts to cellphones, including handset upgrades. The provision passed after sharp debate. The committee, mandated by the Warn Act, approved a final report on broadcast of emergency alerts to cellphones. The report goes to the FCC, which is to issue a rulemaking seeking further comment.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Wednesday that emergency alerts on cellphones should target smaller areas than just counties. Martin briefly attended a meeting of the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee and urged the group to give that issue special attention as it prepares to vote on a final report to the commission.

Cellphone manufacturers are increasingly being asked to pack more features into smaller handsets, and regulators must keep in mind the technical issues raised by the orders they hand down, Steve Sharkey, director of spectrum and standards strategy at Motorola said Tuesday at the Washington spectrum management conference sponsored by Law Seminars International.