Emergency alert system experts called for an AM band “resurrection” as part of the FCC’s AM revitalization effort. The commission should enforce Part 15 of FCC rules for the AM band, which governs unlicensed communication transmissions, the Broadcast Warning Working Group said in comments in docket 13-249 (http://bit.ly/1grK80S). Stations that previously had “listenable” signals “have seen their audiences gradually stolen by all types of electronic noise that are the result of the commission not treating the intentional and unintentional radiators of that noise as Part 15 devices and applying strong enforcement to the offenders,” it said. Continued allowance of technologies like broadband Internet over power lines contributes to the problem, it said. Part 15 should be amended to make it clear that unintentional radiators, like long-wire antennas used to broadcast harmonic noise based on high tension power distribution, are held accountable for the harmful interference caused to the AM band, BWWG said. The group also urged the FCC to take action to end overmodulation of AM transmitter carriers, which “creates harmful interference to adjacent channels."
Broadcaster associations in Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia urged the FCC to take a flexible approach to the presentation of emergency information to the public and to require that during emergency alert system (EAS) activations, all cable systems pass through TV programming “that makes weather-related and other emergency information available to viewers,” they said in joint reply comments in docket 04-296 (http://bit.ly/1bDy5Zo). Reply comments on the first nationwide EAS test were due this week (CD Nov 12 p8). Cable systems undermine the efforts of local stations to provide their communities with this critical information “when cable systems choose to override local programming with other content during EAS activations,” they said. NCTA urged the Public Safety Bureau to consider the technical and operational costs and challenges posed by proposed changes to the EAS protocol for EAS participants before it makes recommendations for FCC action, it said (http://bit.ly/1bRDmjq). Cable operators “need to retain the ability to make the selective override decision where it is technically feasible and makes sense for their customers,” it said. Cable operators typically don’t have the ability to create or edit closed captioning streams and pass through closed captioning exactly as it’s received, it said. NCTA also urged the commission to reject DirecTV’s suggestion of formalizing use of the Washington, D.C., location code, it said. The American Cable Association cautioned against additional regulatory mandates that require its members to buy, replace or modify equipment to ensure compliance, ACA said (http://bit.ly/18oBvlF). The association supports efforts to ensure the readability of EAS alerts, it said. But the bureau must develop a full understanding of the costs involved in standardizing diverse character generator systems, and consider alternatives “before recommending that the commission impose inflexible readability mandates,” it said. Hearst said it supports a longer nationwide test. Another important set of data may be revealed if the next test is longer than two minutes, “namely data associated with the time-out limitations programmed into most EAS gear,” it said (http://bit.ly/19HSfQF).
"A large majority” of the nation’s broadcasters will sit out the TV incentive spectrum auction, NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan predicted Tuesday during a webinar sponsored by the Digital Policy Institute. Kaplan, a former FCC Wireless Bureau chief, also questioned why the FCC continues to push for a 2014 auction. Preston Padden, head of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, said the auction should be a success as long as the FCC gets the rules right.
It’s up to broadcasters to embrace the nascent rollout of mobile DTV, with the expense of adding equipment to transmit to portable consumer electronics using that standard being minor compared with the opportunity cost of not “lighting up,” said advocates of the technology. One backer told us he’s frustrated at the pace of adoption, while others said in interviews last week and at an NAB event that they expect more stations to adopt the technology. “Mobile TV is already available in nearly 40 markets serving approximately 60 percent of the U.S. population,” said NAB incentive auction pointman Rick Kaplan at the event Wednesday. “This is all before mobile TV proponents have ever launched a large-scale coordinated promotional campaign.”
As the media have become more consolidated and corporate, broadcasters do less to serve the public interest, said panelists Wednesday at a New America Foundation event. The event was centered around Broadcast Blues (http://bit.ly/rl7hWI), a 2009 film that blames a decline in journalism, increasingly divergent political parties and more indecency on TV on broadcast consolidation and lapses in FCC oversight.
The Advanced Television Systems Committee released an implementation guide (http://bit.ly/17pKvTo) for TV stations to broadcast mobile emergency alert system (M-EAS) messages along with their mobile DTV offerings, said an ATSC news release Wednesday. The new handbook provides instructions on how stations can update broadcast equipment and “demonstrate the new functionality to local emergency management agencies,” said the release. M-EAS “uses Mobile Digital TV to reach viewers with video, text, by sound, and with informative maps, graphics, and instructions,” the release said. The technology generates a banner alert that is displayed by individual devices, and can include supplemental information “as HTML pages, maps and images, and video files,” said the release. Adding M-EAS to a station “can be accomplished at very modest cost,” said ATSC M-EAS Implementation Team Chairman Jay Adrick. The technology doesn’t requires additional radio frequency, uses the Common Alerting Protocol used by government agencies, and also “runs in the background, allowing regular TV programming to continue,” he said.
NAB, NPR, DirecTV and other groups addressed time discrepancies, location code and other issues in comments on the first nationwide test of the emergency alert system (EAS), which took place two years ago (CD Nov 10/11 p2). Comments on the test’s equipment and operation were due last week in docket 04-296.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $25,000 fine against Turner Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/18ZY2kl) and reached a $39,000 consent decree with a Kentucky TV station (http://bit.ly/1cSYkgW), both over misuse of Emergency Alert System tones, the bureau said in a news release Wednesday. By including simulated or recorded EAS codes and attention signals in programming that wasn’t related to an emergency, Turner and MMK, licensee of Kentucky station WNKY, created a “cry-wolf scenario,” said the bureau. Along with putting out a news release on the violations, the bureau issued an enforcement advisory on false or fraudulent use of the EAS system (http://bit.ly/1bZkf50). “It is inexcusable to trivialize the sounds specifically used to notify viewers of the dangers of an incoming tornado or to alert them to be on the lookout for a kidnapped child, merely to advertise a talk show or a clothing store,” said acting bureau Chief Robert Ratcliffe in the release. According to a notice of apparent liability issued against Turner, the company’s proposed fine stems from a TBS promo for the April 26, 2012, Conan show, which used sounds intended to simulate EAS tones. Produced in-house by Turner, the promo spot was created within “a tight timeframe” and wasn’t submitted for a standards and practices review, the NAL said. “We find that the sounds used in the material are substantially similar to the sounds made by the transmission of EAS codes such that an average audience member would reasonably mistake the sounds for the sounds made by actual EAS codes,” said the bureau in the NAL. Though the base forfeiture for such a violation is $8,000, the bureau increased the amount because the promo aired on both the East Coast and subsequent West Coast TBS feeds, and because TBS reaches “approximately 99.7 million U.S. television households,” the NAL said. “The fact that Turner’s violations reached such a potentially vast audience greatly increases the extent and gravity of the violations,” said the bureau. Turner’s ability to pay was also a factor, the NAL said. MMK violated EAS rules by broadcasting actual recorded EAS tones in a commercial for The FanWear & More Store, said the consent decree. Though the decree doesn’t provide many details of the violation, MMK’s significantly higher voluntary contribution compared with Turner’s proposed forfeiture might indicate repeated violation -- especially considering Turner’s likely much larger audience, said Pillsbury broadcast attorney Scott Flick in an interview. Along with the $39,000, MMK agreed to a compliance plan that includes public education about EAS, a manual and training program for employees, and regular compliance reports to the bureau, said the decree. An FCC spokesman said NALs such as that issued to Turner don’t typically include compliance plans, which are usually the result of a settlement. Since the bureau has already issued an NAL that involved an extended investigation, it’s unlikely that Turner’s violation would be resolved with a consent decree similar to MMK’s, said Flick. “Those discussions typically happen during the investigative phase,” said Flick. He said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1b6L5Kh) that Wednesday’s enforcement actions are the biggest penalties for EAS misuse the enforcement bureau has issued, though the bureau did issue an urgent advisory after a security breach led to a bogus alert about zombies being issued over common alert protocol systems in Michigan (CD Feb 14 p). The penalties to MMK and Turner show the bureau believes “it is time to crack down on violations,” said Flick, and he pointed to a line in the enforcement advisory about ongoing investigations as “ominous.” The penalty against Turner suggests the bureau might have a bigger problem with content that violates rules when it’s produced by networks themselves rather than advertising agencies that don’t know any better, said Flick. “If there’s a distinction and they're gonna be harder on people that produced it themselves, it would be helpful for the FCC to provide those guidelines,” he said in an interview. Turner and MMK didn’t comment.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general found that a year after the department’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C) reorganized its internal structure, it “still faces challenges in sharing cyber threat information with other federal cyber operations centers.” CS&C, part of DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), reorganized in October 2012 to improve the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center’s functionality, the DHS IG said in a report made public Monday. NCCIC has since enhanced partnerships with other federal cyberoperations centers to address specific incidents and increased interagency collaboration, the report said. The NCCIC also collaborated with the FBI and other public and private partners to release Joint Indicator Bulletins related to cyberthreats and conducted drills to improve cyberoperations centers’ capabilities and plans, the report said. But NPPD needs to address tech and workforce deficiencies -- issues NPPD told the IG it is working to improve (http://1.usa.gov/1a3ndpB).
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and NPR will start a two-month pilot test in December to broadcast entire emergency alert system messages to the hearing impaired using a first-of-its-kind EAS radio receiver, said the radio programmer and advocates for the deaf in interviews. They said that under a $360,000 contract from FEMA parent, the Department of Homeland Security, NPR has enough money for 25 member stations in five Gulf Coast states to run simulations in December and January. The contract was disclosed in February (http://n.pr/HhTmj7). The system incorporates elements of FEMA’s newer Integrated Public Alert and Warning System that gathers EAS messages written in a newer Internet friendly Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) format and uses IPAWS to deliver the messages to stations through NPR’s satellite system of sending programming to noncommercial stations.