ABC, AMC, Discovery and radio group Meruelo agreed to pay the FCC combined more than $600,000 in settlements over misuse of emergency alert system and wireless emergency alert tones, the Enforcement Bureau announced Thursday with a news release, four consent decrees and an advisory on the rules around using alert tones. All four offenders agreed to institute compliance plans to avoid repeat violations. “Use of actual or simulated EAS tones during non-emergencies and outside of proper testing or public service announcements is a serious public safety concern,” the release said. ABC’s infractions took place during an October segment of Jimmy Kimmel Live! ridiculing the 2018 nationwide test of WEA and presidential alerts. The segment involved faked wireless alerts from President Donald Trump -- per a New York Times article cited as a way the regulator learned of the infraction -- but apparently used real recorded WEA tones. ABC will pay $395,000 for the violation. AMC used EAS tones twice on a February episode of The Walking Dead, the decree said. An FCC employee who had watched the episode first reported it. AMC has agreed to $104,000. Meruelo included EAS tones among a number of other sound effects in an audio promotion it aired numerous times, and agreed to pay $67,000. A Discovery camera crew filming Lone Star Law caught footage and audio of a real WEA connected with Hurricane Harvey being received by the show’s subjects and included it in an episode. Discovery has agreed to pay $68,000. “False, fraudulent, or unauthorized use of the emergency alert system or wireless emergency alert codes or attention signals is strictly prohibited,” said the enforcement advisory.
BALTIMORE -- Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC expects major carriers to meet a Nov. 30 deadline for more targeted wireless emergency alerts. “I am re-emphasizing my call to all stakeholders to continue working cooperatively and expeditiously to meet the Nov. 30 deadline,” Pai told APCO Tuesday. He stopped short of discussing what the agency will do if carriers are unable to meet the deadline. His remarks were later posted.
The 2019 nationwide emergency alert system test appeared to go relatively smoothly Wednesday, said emergency alerting officials gauging early results.
Tech entrepreneur and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang criticized Amazon and the role artificial intelligence is going to play in workforce displacement during a Wednesday debate with former Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Commerce Committee member Kamala Harris of California and seven other candidates. The debate was otherwise almost completely devoid of tech and telecom policy mentions. A Tuesday debate included several policy focuses, with Senate Commerce member and 2020 Democratic candidate Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota saying rural broadband will be a top priority in her $1 trillion infrastructure proposal (see 1907310035). “Amazon is closing 30 percent of America's stores and malls and paying zero in taxes while doing it,” Yang said Wednesday. Amazon has been a target for Democratic candidates' ire during all four debates this year (see 1906270010 and 1906280053). Yang later warned AI is “going to displace hundreds of thousands of call center workers, truck drivers, the most common jobs in the United States.” Biden said he wouldn't seek to have the U.S. rejoin the original version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which in part deals with digital issues, but instead would seek to renegotiate. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from TPP in 2017 (see 1701240047). Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, invoked the 2018 false missile alert in Hawaii during her closing statement to highlight her objections to Trump's foreign policy priorities. Gabbard didn't mention the push for legislation, like the Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats (Alert) Act, to address perceived weaknesses in the wireless emergency alert system (see 1904240033).
The 2019 nationwide test of the emergency alert system planned for Aug. 7 (see 1907010041) is expected to be largely routine. It will involve aspects of the system that haven’t been tested since the first nationwide test in 2011, said emergency alerting officials and broadcasters in interviews. Since the 2011 test experienced some complications, they are seen as possible this time around as well, EAS and broadcast officials told us.
Letting SiriusXM use compression technology on its traffic, weather and alert channels won't affect emergency alert system functionality or operations, the FCC Public Safety Bureau said in Thursday's Daily Digest in a conditional waiver of transmission of some truncated EAS message data on those SiriusXM channels. The compression technology is limited to those traffic, weather and alert channels and the messages' audio portion must remain intelligible under compression.
An FCC order on emergency alert system testing and false alerts adopted a year ago (see 1807120059) is in effect, with OMB OK, the commission said in Tuesday's Federal Register. It requires communications providers report false alerts and changes to EAS equipment to reject alerts that don’t have necessary digital signatures or are incorrectly timed.
A nationwide test of the emergency alert system will be held Aug. 7, as expected (see 1907170066), beginning at 2:20 p.m. EDT, the FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday. The test will be sent to television and radio stations.
Emergency alert system participants are required to provide accessible EAS alerts, said the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a reminder public notice Wednesday before the planned Aug. 7 nationwide EAS test (see 1907010041). EAS participants “should take necessary steps” to ensure the hearing and visually impaired have “full access” to the alert messages, the PN said.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., led a Tuesday letter with 18 other members of Congress from California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington urging FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to ensure proposed changes to the wireless emergency alert system don't “impair its ability to provide rapid earthquake early warning alerts.” Other signers include House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Patty Murray of Washington, Senate Commerce Committee member Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and House Communications Subcommittee member Jerry McNerney, D-Calif. Recent changes to the WEA system “to better geo-fence wildfire and other emergency alerts could unintentionally delay notifications and severely weaken the effectiveness of the ShakeAlert system,” the lawmakers wrote Pai. They cited a June 21 letter from U.S. Geological Survey Director Jim Reilly urging the FCC to consider changes to the WEA rules to make wireless earthquake alerts more effective. “Act on this request from USGS for clarification, waiver and rule changes as soon as possible,” the lawmakers suggested. Recent significant earthquakes in areas around Seattle and southern California mean “the effectiveness of earthquake early alerts to our constituents is more critical than ever.” Wednesday, the FCC didn't comment.