An NPR satellite feed caused a systemic audio glitch with Wednesday’s first-ever nationwide test (CD Nov 10 p2) of the emergency alert system (EAS). The Squawk Channel feed was used by some commercial radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming providers to carry the test alert from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, executives said. The feed also was used for some noncommercial stations, which got the channel directly from NPR and who then passed it onto the other types of EAS participants. Broadcasters and MVPDs that relied on the feed for the test had the audio test message disrupted. The exercise nonetheless worked as intended, because the EAS participants got the simulated warning and passed it on, even though the announcement couldn’t be clearly heard, said executives who participated in the test.
The first-ever national emergency alert system test saw glitches at cable operators, DBS providers and commercial and nonprofit radio and TV broadcasters, our survey of those EAS participants and our own research found. The exercise was shortened last week to 30 seconds from three minutes, after the NCTA unsuccessfully sought a delay because many cable encoder-decoder units that pass the alert on couldn’t show video saying it was a test (CD Nov 7 p6). That prompted worries among government and industry officials that viewers would think an actual emergency occurred, but broadcast executives said that didn’t appear to have happened, based on initial reports. All EAS participants have a month and a half to report to the FCC how things went.
Emergency Alert System participants must not broadcast EAS tones or attention signals except during Wednesday’s test of the national EAS system (CD Nov 7 p6), the FCC said Tuesday. That means any news coverage of the test should exclude the EAS tones, codes and attention signals, it said in a public notice released by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. “Any rebroadcast of the EAS tones and attention signal not only would violate FCC rules, but would also pose a public danger because rebroadcast of the tones could trigger a false alert from EAS equipment that picks up such a rebroadcast."
The U.S. government shortened the length of Wednesday’s emergency alert system nationwide test to 30 seconds from more than three minutes, a public noticed released by the FCC Thursday said. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, shortening the duration of the test will achieve its two goals of testing the system while minimizing the potential disruption and chance for creating concern among the public. That’s something broadcasters and pay-TV providers have been working to remedy, along with the government (CD Oct 28 p12). FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate on Friday asked EAS stakeholders for help educating the public about the exercise.
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.