The FCC and the Department of Homeland Security should look into the delivery of emergency alerts through FM radio tuners in cellphones, said a letter from 60 federal lawmakers from both parties. A 2006 law required the wireless industry to create an emergency alert system for cellphone users, the letter noted, but there aren’t many FM radio-enabled cellphone models in the U.S.
All the state broadcasters associations asked the FCC to cancel a proposed fine against a radio broadcaster that’s a local primary one station in the emergency alert system. If the $5,000 penalty stands against KWVE(FM) San Clemente, Calif., for accidentally sending out an EAS test (CD Sept 18 p15), it could deter other stations from taking part in the system, the state groups wrote all the FCC’s commissioners. “The loss of a single LP-1 station can cause a state’s EAS plan to be in non-compliance,” because other broadcasters and cable operators pass along messages from such entities, they wrote.
A federal emergency official told House members Wednesday that there’s a plan to improve the nation’s emergency alert system before fiscal 2013. The plan is “not without its challenges,” Damon Penn, assistant administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at a House Public Safety Subcommittee hearing. “There must be no more delay in building a modern alert system,” said Subcommittee Chairman Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.
The FCC fined four radio stations, including one owned by a college and one by a high school, a total of $17,000 for unauthorized operation or missing deadlines to renew licenses, in Media Bureau forfeiture orders. An Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability proposed fining KWVE(FM) San Clemente, Calif., $5,000 for an unauthorized emergency alert system test. Also fined were WHEI(FM) Tiffin, Ohio, WJHS(FM) Columbia City, Ind., and WECO AM/FM Wartburg, Tenn.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau should vacate a $9,600 fine against Bethune-Cookman University because its student training station is a low-power FM outlet, said a Tuesday letter to acting bureau Chief Suzanne Tetrault from five groups. The college’s WRWS(FM) Daytona Beach, Fla., was fined by the bureau in April for running an unlicensed radio station and not installing required emergency alert system gear. LPFM stations usually get “dramatically reduced” fines, the groups said. The bureau disregarded that policy by not penalizing the station “at most a few hundred dollars,” said the Black College Communication Association, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and others.
The FCC fined four radio stations a total of $32,200 via Enforcement Bureau forfeiture orders. WIFI(AM) Florence, N.J., was penalized $18,400 for running at excessive power, not keeping up emergency alert system gear and other violations. Also fined were Wisconsin stations WKLJ(AM) Sparta, and WFBZ(FM) Trempealeau and WGBN(AM) New Kensington, Pa.
All options remain on the table for the 700 MHz D-block, Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett told reporters Thursday. Bureau officials said, meanwhile, that it’s unclear when the 800 MHz rebanding, ongoing for five years, will be completed. Barnett has been at the FCC only since late July.
“Vulnerabilities remain” and states have yet to take many recommended steps to deal with problems previously pointed out in emergency communications across the country, the GAO said. Meanwhile, a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee Monday called in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator, Joe Fugate, and other witnesses for a hearing on emergency alerts, FEMA and whether the agency should again be made independent from the Department of Homeland Security.
Some industry officials said they're generally pleased with new satellite TV legislation from Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. They also welcomed the House Judiciary Committee draft of satellite reauthorization legislation, which would free Dish Network from the so-called death penalty, a court injunction preventing the company from importing distant signals.
An AT&T emergency petition on Universal Service Fund contributions is expected to flare up old arguments before the new FCC, telecom industry officials said Monday. Late Friday, the company urged “immediate commission action” to adopt the plan by AT&T and Verizon for a pure numbers-based mechanism, in light of the all-time high 12.9 percent contribution factor that kicked in earlier this month. But AT&T’s foes don’t appear to have budged on the subject.