Government agencies don’t distribute emergency alert system warnings to radio listeners and viewers of over-the-air and pay TV only via the Internet, state and federal originators of EAS alerts and industry executives said. During Hurricane Isaac, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new Web-based EAS distribution system wasn’t used by agencies serving the Gulf Coast that responded to our survey. Instead, the traditional method of distributing storm and disaster alerts by broadcasting them to all radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors in a region was used late last month, as it continues to be.
Clarification: Kenai Broadcasting’s emergency alert system waiver wasn’t denied by the FCC as the company said (CD Sept 11 p1), and the agency asked for more information about the EAS request, a commission spokeswoman said. She said the agency sought comment on the American Cable Association’s EAS petition, withdrawn by the ACA because the merits of the request weren’t acted on in time for an EAS deadline.
Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL-TV Raleigh, N.C., will demonstrate a mobile Emergency Alert System using the ATSC mobile DTV standard. Watch the demo here Thursday at 6 p.m. EDT: http://www.wral.com/11477194.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau has pressed for emergency alert system rule compliance after getting waiver requests in past months from rural cable operators and TV stations, some of those seeking exemptions told us. The requests claimed insufficient broadband availability prevented them from upgrading EAS for a new format that requires Internet connectivity (CD July 2 p9) by a June 30 deadline. One radio station’s waiver request was denied, while the bureau wanted more details about others’ efforts to acquire broadband service before ruling on waivers, industry officials said. They said some inquiries inspired EAS participants to find innovative ways to connect rural stations and cable headends to broadband.
Texas Association of Broadcasters President Ann Arnold, 67, died Saturday. She had leukemia. During her 25-year tenure at TAB, she became an expert on the emergency alert system, and in 2005 was president of the National Alliance of State Broadcast Associations. Arnold was the first female press secretary to a Texas governor, Mark White (D), in the 1980’s and before that was a newspaper and wire service reporter. Two sons and a sister survive.
The FCC Homeland Security Bureau said it is working with stakeholders to address concerns with the agency’s Emergency Alert System rules. The revelation came in a letter sent to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., (http://xrl.us/bnnwcn). Bureau Chief David Turetsky acknowledged that broadcasters have raised significant objections to the FCC’s mandatory override/force tuning practices and in response the commission will revisit the issue, he said in the letter published this week. “While I cannot predict the outcome of this review, I can assure you that the commission remains committed to ensuring the public has access to timely and accurate public safety information across all information and media platforms,” Turetsky wrote.
The storm known as Isaac evolved into a category-1 hurricane early Wednesday and continued its assault. States of emergency were declared in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. But by 3 p.m. EDT the storm weakened back into a tropical storm, but still with “life-threatening hazards,” the National Hurricane Center said. Isaac has left many power outages in its wake and plenty of communications frenzy, but little clear picture of how telecom has been affected.
Daystar Radio sought an FCC waiver because KLLV(AM), Breen, Colo., doesn’t have access to broadband to allow it can get and pass along emergency alert system warnings in common alerting protocol format, the broadcaster said. “The high speed DSL line is still unavailable in our area,” which is rural, the station said in a filing posted Thursday to docket 04-296 (http://xrl.us/bnmxho). “There is no satellite delivery at the station -- program content is downloaded 20 miles away at our business office and CDs are hand delivered to the station."
GAO is reviewing “progress made in modernizing” the U.S. emergency alert system and last year’s nationwide EAS test, the FCC said (http://xrl.us/bnmjjz). The office is reviewing “efforts underway to address any weaknesses in the EAS identified by the test,” said a Public Safety Bureau public notice dated Friday. “GAO has requested test result information” from the commission, and the FCC is sharing with the office information from EAS participants about the test, the notice said. It said radio and TV stations, pay-TV operators and others that participate in EAS were ordered in November to give test information to the commission, which an FCC order “specifically provided that submitted information would be presumed confidential and not released to the public."
Emergency managers need to make sure they involve people with disabilities when making emergency plans, said Marcie Roth, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Disability Integration and Coordination. Alerts should be as accessible as possible, she said Wednesday on a FEMA webinar about the Integrated Public Alert and Warnings System. As an example, she highlighted a demonstration from the county of San Diego that used audio, text and American Sign Language messages in the same clip (http://youtu.be/hoxcc0PFcq0). Getting people with disabilities involved in emergency planning is critical because they have expertise and experience using communications systems that will be critical during emergencies, she said. “We've historically thought about people with disabilities as perhaps liabilities in emergencies and disasters,” she said. “But people with disabilities encounter some of the challenges with accessibility and access to effective communication on a daily basis and can be some of our greatest assets as we plan our work.” Roth said the National Council on Disability is preparing a report for later this year or early next year that will lay out the current state of disaster communications accessibility and provide some recommendations.