The FCC proposed fining Bravo Broadcasting $8,000 because KIRT(AM) Mission, Texas, lacked emergency alert system equipment, said an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability (http://xrl.us/bngnd7). Thursday’s NAL ordered Bravo to submit a sworn statement that KIRT’s alerting equipment is installed and working.
West River Cable said it will have to “discontinue operation of the four cable systems as soon as possible” if it doesn’t get a waiver of FCC emergency alert system rules requiring all EAS participants to have been able to get and receive common alerting protocol (CAP) warnings by June 30. The company “cannot afford to acquire and install the new equipment required to receive and forward CAP-formatted” alerts on those systems, the subsidiary of a rural phone co-op said in a filing posted Friday in docket 04-296 and dated two days before the deadline (http://xrl.us/bnf889). The systems in Faith, McLaughlin, Timber Lake, S.D., and Selfridge, N.D., have several hundred subscribers total, are outside the co-op’s local exchange service area and are “very small systems that have long been unprofitable,” the filing said. Other cable operators and broadcasters have also sought CAP waivers (CD July 6 p14).
The FCC is proposing to fine Geneva Walker, licensee of WMAF(AM) in Madison, Fla., $8,000 for violating Section 11.359(a) of the FCC rules, the Enforcement Bureau said in a notice (http://xrl.us/bnf8ux). It said Walker failed to “maintain operational Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment and ... to keep records indicating why EAS tests were not received,” the notice said.
The FCC got three requests for emergency alert system waivers of a requirement that all EAS participants be able to get and pass onto viewers and listeners warnings in the newer common alerting protocol (CAP) format by June 30 a few days afterward. Docket 04-296 shows (http://xrl.us/bne4ow) that low-power FM station WLCJ Marinette, Wis. (http://xrl.us/bne4nz), WEVL(FM) Memphis, Tenn. (http://xrl.us/bne4u6), and Townsquare Media for New York stations WDLA(AM/FM) Walton, WIYN(FM) Deposit and Delhi FM outlets WTBD and WDHI (http://xrl.us/bne4vx) sought delays Monday or Tuesday. The first two waiver seekers are nonprofits that cited delays in getting necessary equipment, which requests that were made before the deadline also pointed to (CD July 2 p9). The low-power FM station said it waited until the date approached before placing an order. Industry officials have told us commission staff have warned that waiting too long isn’t a good excuse. A Public Safety Bureau spokeswoman declined to comment. Townsquare met the deadline to install CAP equipment, but the main studio in Walton for the stations it seeks a waiver for has no commercial broadband service available and so the outlets can’t get all messages, the company said. “To remedy this problem, Townsquare is in the process of installing a private microwave system to connect the Stations’ Walton main studio location to a nearby Townsquare main studio location, which would give the Stations access to broadband.” It ought to take three to six months to install that microwave system, the company said. Others seeking waivers recently but before June 30 include Pene Broadcasting for Leesville, La., stations KLLA(AM) and KJAE(FM) (http://xrl.us/bne48d) and Americus Communications for Wisconsin outlets WPCN(AM) and WSPT(FM), both in Stevens Point, and WKQH(FM) Marathon (http://xrl.us/bne5e2). Those companies said they waited to see if the deadline would be again extended by the commission. Other broadcasters and cable operators had also sought delays in recent days (CD July 3 p13).
The FCC received more petitions from broadcasters and cable operators seeking to be let out of new Emergency Alert System common alerting protocol (CAP) obligations that were set to take effect Saturday. Some parties told the commission they needed a waiver because of the lack of available broadband service at their operations. Others said they couldn’t afford the equipment and costs associated with maintaining it. Some parties have equipment ordered, but manufacturing backlogs mean they won’t receive the gear until after the deadline. The waivers are in docket 04-296 (http://xrl.us/bndbh7).
KJAY asked the FCC for a waiver from new emergency alert system rules set to take effect at month’s end that require the ability to receive common alert protocol-formatted alerts. There is “not any physical broadband Internet connection existing or available at the transmitter site” in West Sacramento, Calif., because no “regular” ISP is able to serve that region, the company said (http://xrl.us/bncygz). It’s “investigated satellite internet delivery, and learned that this is infeasible because of obtruction [sic] to the view of the geostationary arc.” It will “continue to determine whether broadband Internet access has become physically available at the transmitter site,” and if access remains “physically unavailable, Company will request a six-month extension of the waiver,” KJAY said. When access becomes available the company will alert the FCC that it plans to come into “full compliance” with the new rules, it said. KJAY(AM) Sacramento, Calif., is the only broadcaster with those call letters in the FCC’s licensee database. The KJAY filing, made by a lawyer in Oakland, Calif., didn’t say what broadcasters were involved. We couldn’t reach the lawyer for clarification.
Charter Communications asked the FCC for six-month waivers of new emergency alert system (EAS) rules for 32 of its “smallest, most remote cable headends” because they lack the broadband necessary to “reliably” receive alerts formatted in common alerting protocol (CAP). It said (http://xrl.us/bncmyd) it started buying new equipment last year, having “invested hundreds of thousands of dollars toward CAP-compliant hardware and software upgrades,” which will give access to CAP-compliant alerts to over 99 percent of its subscribers by the June 30 deadline. Several cable companies have filed waiver requests for similar systems in docket 04-296 this month as the deadline approaches (CD June 22 p15).
Comcast asked the FCC for a six-month reprieve from complying with new emergency alert system (EAS) rules taking effect at month’s end “for a handful of its smallest, most remote cable systems ... serving less than two tenths of one percent” of its subscribership (http://xrl.us/bncgdp). The systems can’t receive messages formatted in common alerting protocol (CAP) because they lack broadband connections, but the company is “aggressively pursuing an innovative plan” to comply through a “satellite-based delivery mechanism, and it is doing so notwithstanding the substantial ‘per subscriber’ implementation costs associated with that plan,” Comcast said. “Subscribers to Comcast’s Remote Systems already have access to timely and effective emergency warnings through legacy EAS equipment, and Comcast will continue to operate its legacy EAS equipment at the Remote Systems” while it works on CAP compliance. Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Turetsky separately granted (http://xrl.us/bncgd7) the American Cable Association’s request for withdrawal of its petition for reconsideration of the new EAS rules. The group had proposed a streamlined waiver process for cable systems that serve less than 501 subscribers, but in its withdrawal petition noted that the comment cycle for that proposal would end on July 3 -- after the new rules take effect (CD June 14 pX) -- and thus deprive ACA members of “meaningful relief."
Suddenlink Communications and Uno Radio Group separately sought FCC waivers of emergency alert system rules for the newer common alerting protocol (CAP), which all EAS participants must use to receive and pass along messages by month’s end (CD June 18 p10). Suddenlink said it’s already bought CAP-compliant equipment for 57 of its 62 smallest cable systems (http://xrl.us/bncdce), but needs 90 more days to “complete the installation and testing process.” The other five systems are among its “smallest, most remote cable headends,” and it requests six-month waivers because the sites lack the broadband “necessary to reliably receive CAP-formatted alerts,” Suddenlink said. The cable operator said it’s spent more than a half-million dollars since 2011 updating its “legacy” EAS equipment to CAP-compliant hardware and software upgrades, as a result of which 98 percent of its subscribers will be able to receive CAP-formatted messages by month’s end. Puerto Rico-based Uno asked (http://xrl.us/bncdc5) for waivers for its 14 stations because of “an unexpected delay in delivery of equipment necessary for compliance,” resulting in the original delivery date of June 15 being pushed back to late July or early August because of the vendor’s “shipping issues and overwhelming demand.” Uno will install, test and make the equipment operational “promptly” after it receives it, and then notify the FCC, it said.
*June 18 American Consumer Institute panel on “looming spectrum crunch,” noon, 2103 Rayburn building -- steve@theamericanconsumer.org