[EAS] Cable TV Problems

[Adrienne Abbott]

OK--it's getting easy to tell who's ever had a cable subscription and who
has not! "Force-tuning" is a bit of a misnomer. Cable customers aren't being
forced to tune to a particular station. Instead, what happens is that the
program you are watching disappears and what you see is a blue screen with
white lettering that displays the test of the EAS message from the EAS box.
For example, in the event of an AMBER Alert, the text displays a message
that reads: A CHILD ABDUCTION EMERGENCY HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE FOLLOWING
COUNTIES/AREAS: WASHOE NV, CARSON CITY NV, CHURCHILL NV,  AT 3:37 AM ON DEC.
1, 2011, EFFECTIVE UNTIL 3:37 PM ON DEC 1, 2011. MESSAGE FROM KKOH 780.
MESSAGE ISSUED BY A BROADCAST STATION OR CABLE SYSTEM AND RECEIVED AT 3:38
AM ON DEC. 1, 2011 FROM KKOH 780 ON CHANNEL 1. DUPLICATE MESSAGE (Copy of an
actual AMBER Alert issued several years ago.)

So what part of this display really tells you that an AMBER Alert has been
issued, who the victim is, who the suspect is, what kind of car the suspect
was driving, where they were last seen and where they might be headed? What
tells you even where this occurred and what agency is handling the
investigation? For the most part--and Ed Czarnecki can tell us for sure--the
cable company has no way to change this message or add to it. 

Because this is the product of the legacy or SAME EAS format, this
information is virtually useless. At best annoys viewers. Anyone who wants
to find out what's really happening can't because they can't tune their set
away from this message. If they are lucky the message goes away after two
minutes and they get control of their TV back. They may even be returned to
the channel they were watching although most likely something like CSPAN
will pop up and they'll have to turn back to what they were watching before
the activation, if the equipment doesn't "lock up" which certain older boxes
will do. At its worst, this information can cause delays in viewers taking
life-saving actions because they've got to figure out what's going on but
they can't until they regain control of their TV. 

Now, imagine what this display is going to say when there is an evacuation
order for a fire or HazMat spill, or a tornado or tsunami warning...not very
pretty! This all happens in the viewer's set top box. There are several
generations of set top boxes out there. Nobody, not even the cable
companies, knows who has what kind of box. In some cases, viewers have no
set top boxes and there is no display during an EAS activation, but the
audio takes over whatever channel they are watching. Yet, the FCC has
approved not only all these various devices but also the lengthy, cumbersome
and confusing process that has resulted from force-tuning. 

Overall, the situation is so bad the cable companies don't want to touch it
and who can blame them. Imagine what corralling this problem is going to
mean for your cable rates...

Adrienne

"Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN