The 2021 nationwide emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert tests appeared to go smoothly in some places but faced reception and transmission difficulties elsewhere, according to anecdotal evidence and early reports from EAS officials. Numerous stations that received their EAS feed from iHeart subsidiary Premiere Radio Networks broadcast a message without an audio alert, several State Emergency Communications Committee chairs told us. “It didn’t go very well,” said Kansas SECC Chair Roy Baum. Reception of the opt-in only WEA test appeared to be inconsistent, but it’s difficult to know if those who didn’t get the message had their phones correctly configured to do so, said Alaska SECC Chair Dennis Bookey.
Most mobile phones won't display the wireless emergency alert test message during Wednesday’s nationwide tests of WEA and the emergency alert system, said a joint FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency news release Monday. The tests will be at 2:20 p.m. EDT (see 2107260043). The message will be received only by “specially configured phones” that have been opted in to receive test messages, FEMA said. “In contrast, consumers will automatically receive real emergency alerts on compatible phones (even if they do not receive the test message),” said the release. Instructions on how to opt in are on the FCC’s website. The WEA message will read “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” The broadcast EAS audio message will include the phrase “No action is required” and will be accompanied by a visual message on televisions. FEMA and the FCC are partnering with the National Weather Service and several state and local emergency management agencies on the test, the release said.
ESPN faces a proposed $20,000 fine for emergency alert system tones in a documentary on the Alabama Crimson Tide-Auburn Tigers football rivalry that was shown in October, an FCC Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability said Friday. ESPN didn't comment.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau plans this year to “open an initiative on potential measures for action” on making emergency alert system messages more accessible, reminded a Thursday public notice on the Aug. 11 nationwide EAS and wireless emergency alert tests (see 2107260043). The bureau is working with Federal Emergency Management Agency on this and on “potential technical solutions that can address the differences between the audio and visual messages” to increase accessibility for future nationwide tests, the PN said. Audio EAS messages contain more information than the visual, textual broadcast EAS message. The bureau “recognizes the importance of ensuring accessibility of these critical messages and acknowledges the disparity between,” the PN said. For the upcoming nationwide tests, EAS participants must file day-of-test data in the EAS test reporting system by Aug. 12, post-test data by Sept. 27.
The FCC, to “create and preserve racial justice,” should act quickly on seven initiatives for social diversity, said the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council in a letter to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s office filed Wednesday in docket 17-105. “There is no better time than now to give effect to this moral imperative,” said the letter, signed by new MMTC President Robert Branson. MMTC wants the agency to give minorities more access to FM station ownership through geotargeting and a C4 class, improve the radio incubator program, require equal opportunity in procurement, press Congress on the minority tax certificate, include diversity impact statements in FCC orders, vigorously enforce equal employment opportunity rules, and pursue multilingual emergency alert system messages, the letter said. The FCC “carries the enormous responsibility of overseeing one-sixth of our national economy, including some of America’s fastest-growing industries and greatest exports,” the letter said. The agency’s “long and malodorous history of minority exclusion should both haunt and motivate all of us,” MMTC said. “Hopefully, looking back on 2021, future students of history will recognize the FCC as an agency that seized the moment and swiftly affirmed its commitment to racial justice.”
Amid ransomware attacks, the Advanced Television Systems Committee takes security of the 3.0 standards and deployment “very seriously,” said President Madeleine Noland. “We are vigilant” about security, she told us Friday. “It is not an afterthought. It is absolutely one of the most important parts of the standard.” 3.0 security “was built in and considered from the very beginning,” she said. The A/360 document in the suite of 3.0 standards on security and service protection was approved two years ago and was last updated in February. A third A/360 amendment on updated system encryption is in the candidate standard process that runs through Dec. 31. The 3.0 standards say “all the executable code shall be signed” cryptographically with a specified “key structure,” she said. “The receiver is able to look at that signature and determine whether or not the executable came from a bona fide source.” And “all the signaling structures” for audio and video, emergency alerting and other service features “must be signed” by the broadcaster, Noland said. “It would be very difficult for a man-in-the-middle attack to come in and sort of take over.” ATSC’s S36 specialist group on 3.0 security, chaired by Sony Director-Technical Standards Adam Goldberg, “meets on a regular basis, and they always have their ear to the rail,” Noland noted. Broadcasters have been hit by other ransomware attacks. (See our recent report here.)
Aug. 11 nationwide tests of the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alerts are expected to proceed similarly to the last ones but more smoothly, said broadcasters and EAS officials in interviews. Volume problems and transmission issues that caused a drop-off in reception in the 2019 EAS exercise (see 2005120064) have been addressed. The 2021 WEA test requires users to have opted in to get the test message, unlike the 2018 version. The 2020 test was canceled due to COVID-19. “If something fails, we try to go back and see where it’s not working,” said Wyoming Association of Broadcasters President Laura Grott.
Emergency alerts must be “visually and aurally accessible,” said an FCC Enforcement Bureau advisory public notice Wednesday. Emergency alert system messages must be displayed at the top of the screen, in fonts and colors “readily readable and understandable” and the audio portion “must play in full at least once” during the message, the PN said. “The Enforcement Bureau may, at its discretion, treat each failure to transmit accessible EAS messages as a separate violation for purposes of calculating the proposed forfeiture amount.” A nationwide test of EAS and wireless emergency alerts is planned for Aug. 11 (see 2105040068). Consumers who witness inaccessible alerts should report that, the PN said.
The FCC partnered with 11 federal, state and local agencies to assess the delivery of wireless emergency alerts as part of a planned Aug. 11 test of the emergency alert system (see 2105040068). Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also sent letters to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon asking them to provide performance information after the test, said a Tuesday release. WEAs “are a powerful tool for public safety managers to inform and protect the public during disasters,” Rosenworcel said: “While the FCC has long required … participants to report how nationwide EAS tests fared on their television and radio systems, this is the first time we will gather meaningful data about the performance of a nationwide” WEA test. The letters ask the providers to provide the data within two weeks of the test. “Describe any complications with alert processing or transmission” that may have kept subscribers from receiving an alert, the letters ask. They ask about actions “to address any complications identified.”
State emergency alert system plans must be filed in the alert reporting system and in compliance with updated FCC requirements by July 5, said the Public Safety Bureau in a public notice posted in docket 15-94 Tuesday.