A forthcoming FCC rulemaking notice on emergency alert systems (EAS) ought to account for the readiness of “various states and territories” to implement the new Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard, the Maine and Texas broadcaster associations said last week. The commission may soon issue a notice on EAS gear certification (CD Nov 19 p5), although agency officials said this week that none was yet circulating. “The Commission is urged to expressly invite the Governors of each state and territory, and their emergency management authorities, to inform the FCC of their respective time tables for updating their state EAS plans and for modifying their own communications networks and facilities,” the associations said in a filing in docket 04-296. “With a full and comprehensive record before the Commission, all interested parties will be better able to evaluate the best ways forward to facilitate the transition to CAP while protecting and preserving the safety of viewers and listeners."
The FCC should consider the security, confirmation and assurance and delivery system compatibility of the common alerting protocol for the emergency alert system before implementing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s recommended CAP EAS rules, said a petition to the FCC filed by the Independent Emergency Alert System Stakeholders. The group is made up of officials from the state emergency communications committees of Nevada, Washington and California and the publisher of the Broadcasters Desktop Resource. They said views in the petition don’t necessarily reflect the views of those organizations. The petition highlighted 14 areas, many of them raised earlier in the docket by other parties, that the FCC should consider further before requiring broadcasters and cable systems be able to receive CAP v1.2 Standard formatted EAS messages. “If these considerations are not made part of the FCC certification of all new EAS equipment, it may be at best difficult and costly -- or at worst impossible -- to make necessary changes once equipment is delivered and installed,” the petition said.
Broadcasters and cable operators got an additional six months from the FCC to comply with new emergency alert system (EAS) standards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as had been expected (CD Nov 19 p5). The new deadline to implement Common Alerting Protocol is Sept. 30, said a Public Safety Bureau order approved by the commissioners. “It is critical that we get this right from the beginning,” said bureau Chief Jamie Barnett. “After weighing considerable public input calling for an extension, we believe today’s action to do so provides broadcasters and other EAS participants with greater flexibility to meet the technical requirements for delivering next generation emergency alerts to the public.” Groups representing cable operators and commercial and nonprofit broadcasters had petitioned for the postponement.
A rulemaking notice on emergency alert system (EAS) gear certification, in the wake of a new standard from the federal government on protocol for transmitting such warnings, should be ready to circulate by year’s end, a career FCC official working on the draft said Thursday. The notice on applying Part 11 rules to radio and TV station and cable operator gear using the new Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is being wrapped up now, Chief Tom Beers of the Public Safety Bureau’s Policy Division told an FCBA brown bag lunch. Also there, the FEMA official overseeing the integrated public alert and warning system said that agency hopes to have a nationwide EAS test, possibly in the next two years, something an NAB representative in the audience said broadcasters likely would support.
The FCC will postpone by a half year the deadline for broadcasters and cable operators to be able to pass along emergency alerts using new standards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said commission and industry officials. The deadline to implement Common Alerting Protocol at radio and TV stations and cable systems is 180 days after FEMA finalized CAP, which was Sept. 30, putting the deadline at the end of March. A draft FCC order likely to be finalized soon extends the time to Sept. 30, 2011, agency and industry officials said. The delay had been expected (CD Oct 5 p1).
The FCC proposed to fine KANR(FM) Belle Plaine, Kan., $25,000 for not keeping up emergency alert system equipment and a public inspection file, and for other alleged violations, said an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability released Wednesday.
Those lobbying the FCC would get more time to report most conversations in ex parte filings, which would need to have more details than some do now, under a draft order awaiting commissioner approval, agency officials said. They said the order sticks mainly sticks to what was proposed in a rulemaking notice on ex partes approved by commissioners in February. A twist is that the draft contains a rulemaking notice to seek further comment on the disclosure of financial ties to companies, groups and others lobbying the FCC, said agency officials. That subject isn’t now part of the draft order’s provisions, they said.
Two AM stations in Tennessee were fined a total of $9,000 Wednesday by the FCC for not surrounding their antennas with locked fences or making available public inspection files at their main studios, according to Enforcement Bureau forfeiture orders. They went to WEPG South Pittsburg and WSDQ Dunlap, which also was fined for not keeping up emergency alert system equipment.
Cable and broadcasters have a hard time agreeing on anything, giving special force to a request they made Thursday asking the FCC to delay by at least six months a deadline for coming up with a standard for an emergency alert system, a lawyer representing TV stations said. “I can’t recall any prior issue inspiring such unanimity among this diverse group of participants, and that should provide an indication of the seriousness with which they view the upcoming task,” wrote Scott Flick on the blog of Pillsbury Winthrop. “It would be a shame to not see the full benefits of” the Common Alerting Protocol standard realized by a rush to implement it, he added. Forty-six state broadcast associations joined the NAB, NCTA, NPR, PBS and others in making the petition (CD Oct 22 p10).
New partners at Patton Boggs technology and communications practice: Matthew Berry, recently hired by the firm, and Robert Quicksilver, ex-Tidal TV … Monroe Electronics names Edward Czarnecki, co-founder of EAS-CAP Industry Group, director of strategy and regulatory affairs, guiding the company’s emergency alert system strategies … Jon Nesvig retiring at year-end as Fox Broadcasting president of sales … Panasonic Solutions names David Nicholas, ex-Cheetah Technologies, to lead its cable group as vice president.