[EAS] Single point entry of CAP messages

[Alex Hartman]

Alan,

I get the stations that have a meterology dept on them, they do serve
the community better by breaking programming and going in-depth with
the weather situations than any EAS scroll ever will.

Comcast i guess must have a policy to bury the tests in the middle of
the night, since that's the only time they ever do them around here.
The local stations seem to do the same though, now that i think about
it, i have seen a daytime EAS test, it was during some paid
programming at 11am on the local MyNetwork affiliate.

But again, to the point of the AMBER alert on TV, the news people
think they're doing a better service by putting it in the evening news
cast, when in reality, the point of the AMBER alert is early detection
typically results in better chances of finding the kid. I've NEVER
seen a TV station forward an AMBER alert via EAS.  Only the local NBC
affiliate has ever put up a scroll at the bottom about it, but none of
the other stations have.

Point is, TV has viewership, but they care more about ratings and not
messing that up, whereas radio has natural breaks with a human being
(usually) and can talk about the alerts, or even break in the middle
of a set to bring the news. Most radio broadcasters believe this is
their "civic duty" part of their license. This is why they're there
most of the time. To keep the public entertained, but informed as
well, whereas TV is much bigger money, especially during a network
show or even a popular local show, and wouldn't dare break programming
for a missing child, or civic emergency.

It's not the fault of the engineering staff, as long as the box does
what it's supposed to, your job is done. It falls squarely on the PD
and GM who set these policies and rules. It's just being a good
broadcaster to not ignore the little box in the corner that's usually
seen as the "necessary evil" known as EAS.

--
Alex Hartman

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 11:43 PM, Alan Kline <broadcast at snugglebunny.us> wrote:
> I don't know about cable, since I haven't been a cable subscriber for
> years, but it certainly isn't true that TV stations bury their EAS tests
> in the wee hours. We make a point of doing the RWT at a variety of times
> so that both morning and afternoon shift personnel do them. Weekends are
> also included. Our state plan calls for the RMT to alternate between
> 3:59am and 9:59 am, so every other month the overnight guy gets a shot.
> Obviously, we don't do tests during news or primetime, but otherwise no
> time is off-limits. Even Oprah's fans have to hear the "duck farts"
> occasionally.
>
> Whether or not you see an activation on TV depends on the station you're
> watching. I'm CO of an affiliate with a full-time meteorology staff, so
> when we get a weather-related activation (more than 99% of activations)
> our guys are on the air instead of the EAS message. So technically,
> you're right--you don't see us relay the EAS activation. Of course, we
> believe that we're doing a better job of serving our audience with our
> weather staff handling things. Obviously, smaller stations without the
> weather staff are more likely to relay EAS activations. I couldn't give
> you any specifics; I'm busy keeping my own station legal...
>
> ak
>
> On 5/18/2011 10:12 PM, Alex Hartman wrote:
>> If he does work in the TV industry, why does every TV/Cable station
>> bury their EAS test at 1am?  (I know the answer, really...)
>>
>> I've lived in many states and it never fails, the EAS test the cable
>> company or OTA station does, 12:30/1am every week. If EAS actually
>> benefited TV, you'd think they'd use it more, wouldn't you? I have YET
>> to see an EAS activation on TV for anything other than... hell, i've
>> NEVER seen it activated on it's own. The local stations break in with
>> a newscast for tornadoes or severe weather, but if it's an AMBER
>> alert, you don't hear about it until the evening news, defeats the
>> purpose, doesn't it?
>>
>> --
>> Alex Hartman
>
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