[EAS] Cable TV Problems

[Eric Adler]

Why not allow a SINGLE force-tune (not a force-and-hold) to a normally vacant channel (heck, it doesn't even have to be encoded with anything but null packets 90+% of the time) along with a "go back" command?  That way viewers are force switched to the message, see it and can choose to ignore it?  Or perhaps just a force-and-hold away from any channel that does not participate (cable-only channels) but allow a user to tune (back) to broadcast stations (and any cable-only channel that does participate)?  

Just thinking out loud here...

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Alan Kline

Even if it is technically possible, how would anyone ever agree on 
exactly *which* station receives the force-tuned viewers? If I'm running 
a station, I'm certainly not going to agree to allow my viewers to be 
force-tuned to a competitor, nor are they going to allow their viewers 
to be given to me. And everyone is going to insist that they be given 
the viewers who are being force-tuned from ESPN, HBO, or whatever. I 
submit that that's an issue that makes the technical problem look like 
child's play.

I still believe that force-tuning in general is too much of a "Big 
Brother", "nanny state" concept for my taste. Require cable systems to 
run EAS crawls over non-broadcast channels, but if a viewer chooses not 
to learn more about a warning, they do so at their own peril. We can't 
hold everybody's hand...

ak

On 12/1/2011 12:26 PM, Barry Mishkind wrote:
>
>          David ... a dumb question from a radio guy:
>          Is it possible for the cable system to force tune
>          everyone to a local channel and then leave the
>          video/audio alone, except for a crawl?

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