Stations and cable networks are taking steps to further inform viewers that a three-minute-long, first-of-its-kind nationwide emergency alert exercise is only a test, FCC officials said Thursday. Chairman Julius Genachowski and Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett acknowledged that there could be some viewer confusion during the Nov. 9 event. They said that’s because some cable encoder-decoders can’t add in additional test disclaimers during the exercise (CD Oct 13 p9). Pay-TV providers and broadcasters have been running public service announcements and otherwise informing viewers of the test.
The FCC started a website for all emergency alert system participants to report results of a nationwide first-of-its-kind EAS test scheduled for Nov. 9. The “Nationwide EAS Test Reporting System” (http://xrl.us/bmgf5j) has three forms to be completed, one of which is available now and the others to be accessible starting the day of the exercise, said a commission public notice Wednesday. One form “will ask each EAS Participant to submit detailed information regarding its receipt and propagation, if applicable, of the alert code, including an explanation of any complications in receiving or propagating the code,” the notice said. “Such details will include what time (including time zone) the code was received, the time of retransmission of the code, and the source from which the code was received.” If EAS participants don’t complete the forms online, they must submit them on paper, and all documents are due Dec. 27, the notice said (http://xrl.us/bmg43o). All “broadcasters, cable operators, satellite radio and television service providers and wireline video service providers” and DBS companies must take part, the agency said. It also released a handbook about the test, with technical and other instructions for those taking part (http://xrl.us/bmg46i). “A copy of the Handbook must be located at normal duty positions or EAS equipment locations when an operator is required to be on duty and be immediately available to staff responsible for administering the Nationwide EAS Test,” the commission said. The handbook and the test reporting website had been expected to have been finished last week (CD Oct 13 p9). The agency noted it’s put public service announcements in English and Spanish online: “We encourage EAS Participants to air announcements to educate consumers” about the exercise.
WHPR(FM) Highland Park, Mich., faces a possible $22,000 FCC fine for not installing emergency alert system gear and for lacking a public-inspection file. An Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability Monday to noncommercial educational station licensee R.J.’s Late Night Entertainment Corp. (http://xrl.us/bmgwr6) said an “EAS decoder was found by station staff in a closet” during a 2010 visit from bureau agents.
The FCC asked all governors to help tell officials and the public about the Nov. 9 first-ever nationwide emergency alert system test. The request came in letters sent by Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett about a month before the planned EAS exercise. “Some actions you can take include informing government officials in your state” about the exercise, he wrote: Other steps include working with “EAS stakeholders to ensure that your state’s EAS plan is up-to-date and working with us” and the Federal Emergency Management Agency “to inform your residents in advance of the test, so that they know what to expect.” Barnett discussed some of the work the FCC and FEMA are doing in advance of the test (CD Oct 19 p7), so government agencies are aware of it.
The ex-operator of a Powers, Mich., cable system didn’t install emergency alert system equipment, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in a notice of apparent liability of $8,000 to Upper Peninsula Communications. The manager of the system “conceded” to a visiting bureau agent in November that it had no EAS gear installed, the NAL said (http://xrl.us/bmgfvo). The government is running a test of all EAS systems Nov. 9. (See separate story in this issue.)
There’s the equivalent of a mini-DTV transition occurring through Nov. 9 by radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors seeking to get the word out about a first-of-its-kind emergency message test set for 2 p.m. Eastern that day. Some executives, who along with the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency are ramping up public outreach (CD Oct 14 p15) about the nationwide emergency alert system test, compared those EAS efforts to what occurred before the 2009 DTV transition. The extent of work among the FCC, FEMA, other government agencies and broadcasters and MVPDs resembles other cooperative efforts before the full-power analog broadcast cutoff, executives and government officials told us.
The FCC, CTIA and Consumers Union unveiled “Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines” as an alternative to bill shock rules proposed by the agency last year. The announcement Monday as expected (CD Oct 17 p10) was in keeping with the Obama administration’s broader move away from regulation where possible. But FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski warned that rules are still possible if voluntary guidelines don’t work. Other members of the commission were not given advanced notice of the agreement, agency officials said.
The broadcast and cable industries are stepping up consumer education efforts through public service announcements and other initiatives to let viewers and listeners know of a first-of-its-kind emergency alert system test Nov. 9. The NAB shared with members a comprehensive “checklist” with PSAs and information for each step of the nationwide simultaneous exercise, the association said late Wednesday. “The checklist provides steps for broadcasters to ensure their equipment is ready for the exercise, and what actions are required of them during and after the test,” the group said. “NAB encourages broadcasters to begin airing the PSAs at least one week before the test, and with increasing frequency as November 9 approaches.” FCC-produced PSAs are on the NAB website (http://xrl.us/bmf3f7), as is information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will trigger the test. The NAB Friday at 11:30 a.m. EDT is sending TV PSAs by satellite feed, and has scripts available for stations to make their own announcements. The NCTA also is sending spots to member companies, executives of that association told us Thursday. “We're getting those out to all of our companies this week, and urging them to start running the PSAs Oct. 24,” said Associate General Counsel Loretta Polk: “We've been getting the word out about this throughout the summer” by telling cable operators about the test so they can prepare. The FCC held a closed-door meeting with FEMA officials and executives from the public and commercial broadcasting industries and from cable, telco-TV and DBS companies (CD Oct 13 p9), and FEMA held a publicly accessible webinar on the test Thursday.
Emergency alert system participants are increasingly focusing outreach on consumers before next month’s first nationwide test, industry officials told us. They said the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency are shifting educational efforts from being just focused on letting radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors know about the Nov. 9 test, to working on public education. The FCC has produced public service announcements about the exercise (http://xrl.us/bmfyvk), and FEMA is working on them, industry participants said. They said both agencies have been holding conference calls and meetings with the broadcasting and MVPD industries and local emergency management agencies.
The FCC is tentatively set to vote Oct. 27 on TV-station disclosure, the agency said Thursday. That delivers some on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s pledge Monday to act on part of the recommendations of the report on the future of the media industry (CD Oct 4 p4). The report had recommended killing the proceeding and requiring TV stations to disclose the extent they cover their communities with filings available online, not just in paper form. The order on reconsideration of the 2007 enhanced disclosure rule accompanies a further rulemaking notice “proposing to replace television broadcast stations’ public files with online public files to be hosted by the Commission,” the agency said. Also Oct. 27, where the main item will be a vote on changing the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation system (see story in this issue), will be a presentation by the Public Safety Bureau. The bureau will talk about preparations for the Nov. 9 nationwide test of the emergency alert system, in which all radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors will take part.