Public broadcaster WNET N.Y./Newark (Ch. 13) said it received $500,000 funding from the National Imagery & Mapping Agency (NIMA) to develop a prototype emergency alert system that would use the station’s digital spectrum to distribute emergency alerts, emergency response information and command and control information to the public, first responders and homeland security personnel. WNET is developing the system in conjunction with Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group under the auspices of the National Technology Alliance (NTA). WNET said the $500,000 initial award would be used to develop and analyze an urban testbed project using the station’s licensed ITFS spectrum for dissemination of information to first responders in national disaster situations. The ultimate goal, WNET said, would be to create a hybrid system in which both the ITFS and normal DTV spectrum bands were used to provide information and 2-way communication to first responders. The DTV channel could be used to broadcast traditional emergency alerts to the public as well as to deliver supplemental datacast information about evacuation routes and emergency treatment center locations to those with data receivers. The ITFS channel could be used to disseminate encrypted data such as building blueprints, procedures for handling dangerous materials and other sensitive information to emergency responders, it said. “The crisis of September 11, 2001, brought Thirteen and New York City together as never before,” Pres. William Baker said: “Ever since that fateful day, Thirteen has been determined to harness its transmission resources to provide vital information that will help save lives in the event of a regional emergency.”
The FCC dismissed a petition for rulemaking filed by Lawson Assoc., which had asked that the Commission permit cable and wireless cable systems with fewer than 5,000 subscribers to fulfill their Emergency Alert System (EAS) obligations by employing EAS decoders that would pass through bulletins by switching channels that didn’t carry the bulletins to one that did. The FCC dismissed the petition as premature because its Media Security & Reliability Council (MSRC) was examining issues related to public warning, including EAS. The FCC said that, if appropriate, it would open an inquiry on EAS after it received MSRC’s final recommendations.
The FCC at its agenda meeting Thurs. announced the creation of an Office of Homeland Security within its Enforcement Bureau, aimed at consolidating issues that relate to homeland security and emergency preparedness into a “more efficient and effective organizational structure.” James Dailey, deputy chief of the Enforcement Bureau and a 31-year FCC veteran, was named dir. of the new office. The office also will have responsibility for proceedings relating to the Emergency Alert System as well as the Commission’s Communications & Crisis Management Center and its Emergency Operations Center. FCC Comr. Copps said he hoped the action would give homeland security “the high priority it deserves at the Commission.” He said “I frankly worry that, as we as a nation move further away from 9/11, we have a tendency to let our guard down, to go back to business as usual.” He said organizational changes such as this one “can help in this effort -- or they can hurt.” It can help if “the priority remains heightened and the leadership is aggressive,” he said. It can hurt if the office “becomes just one more division among several in one bureau, or if the effort becomes one office’s job rather than every office’s job.” FCC Chief of Staff Marsha MacBride outlined the agency’s “action plan” for homeland security, including such things as: (1) Work with the Dept. of Homeland Security to promote the use of best practices developed by the Network Reliability & Interconnection Council and the Media Security & Reliability Council. (2) Develop a service restoration memo of understanding with N.Y.C. and promote it to other metropolitan areas. (3) Double participation by state and local 911 centers in the Telecom Service Priority program. (4) Help tribal groups develop critical communications infrastructure protection plan. (5) Convene a “stakeholders summit to address communications issues that confront individuals with disabilities during national emergencies.” (6) Work with the FBI to review CALEA compliance by telecom carriers. MacBride emphasized that the FCC was “just one component of a complex network of public and private partnerships” working to improve security and reliability of telecom infrastructure.
The Media Security & Reliability Council (MSRC), formed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, voted overwhelmingly to adopt a series of “best practice” recommendations to ensure that timely and accurate emergency information was transmitted to the public in the event of a disaster like the terrorist attacks (CD June 10 p8). Among the recommendations is one that the media should form a public/private partnership with the govt. on federal, state and local levels. How that partnership would look and what shape it would take has yet to be decided.
The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) should have the limited role of only setting up general logistical aspects of the Media Security & Reliability Council’s (MSRC) plans to improve emergency warning systems, council members were told at the group’s 3rd biannual meeting May 28 (CD May 29 p3). Media executives said in interviews after the meeting that federal govt. involvement of some sort was necessary, and many even suggested the Council would agree to work with any conditions DHS proposed.
Media companies need to include the possibility of deliberate sabotage in their planning for media reliability, a task force recommended Wed. to the FCC’s Media Security & Reliability Council (MSRC). Homeland Security Dept. Secy. Tom Ridge called public information communication “one of the most critical pieces of national response to crisis” and an element of homeland security that could help the nation in its development toward “a new and better level of readiness.”
Rep. Meek (D-Fla.), a member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, introduced a bill charging the Dept. of Homeland Security to develop an emergency telephonic alert notification system. It would notify U.S. households and business in case of national, regional or local emergency and provide information about appropriate protective measures. American Teleservices Assn. (ATA) Chmn. Thomas Rocca said “ground-breaking first steps were taken… in forging an arrangement by which the teleservices industry could be asked to assist in rapidly disseminating information to the public in cases of national emergency.” The ATA said the system, called the Responsive Emergency Alert & Dissemination of Information Call System (READICall System), would utilize existing telephone system resources in both govt. agencies and private sector companies.
The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) must move faster to ensure adoption by local first responders of interoperable communications equipment, numerous members of Congress told DHS Secy. Tom Ridge last week. Over the course of 2 days of hearings, more than a dozen members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security raised the interoperability issue, with Rep. Weldon (R-Pa.) also pressing for more spectrum for public safety users. Ridge apparently got the message, because when asked by Rep. Lucas (D-Ky.) what he believed was the top priority for communities involving homeland security, Ridge responded: “What I've heard is, from just about everybody, it’s communications equipment.”
FCC Fines: (1) WBRG-AM, Madison Heights, Va., $4,000 for failing to reduce power at sunset to limit the station’s pre-sunrise power. (2) Mortenson Bcstg., owner of antenna structure in S. Charleston, W. Va., $8,000 for failing to exhibit red obstruction lighting on the structure between sunset and sunrise. Commission cancelled $12,000 fine against Lighthouse Bcstg., former licensee of WBIC-AM, Royston, Ga., and admonished the company for failing to maintain operating Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment and failing to reduce power during post sunset hours and discontinue operation at night.
FCC Fines: Minority Business and Housing Development Inc., licensee of WYGG-FM in Uniondale, N.Y., $13,000 for failing to install Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment and failing to operate in accordance with FCC authorization… Omar Ebanks, Orlando, Fla., $10,000 for operating a radio station without Commission authorization… Scott Kamm, licensee of amateur station NOUGN, Sioux City, Iowa, $12,000 for “intentional interference,” transmitting music on his amateur station and failing to identify his station by call sign.