[EAS] Single point entry of CAP messages

[Adrienne Abbott]

Part 11 requires stations, including cable and TV, to run the RWT's at
random days and random times. If your TV stations or cable operators aren't
doing that, then they are in violation of the rules. And those rules may
change in the Part 11 rewrite, mostly because the RWT doesn't really do
anything for EAS.

We schedule our RMT's to run outside TV and radio "prime time's" and that
means for the six months of the year that Part 11 requires tests to be run
at night, they are running at 3 or 4 AM. That's a courtesy to our stations
as well as our viewers. There is nothing to be gained by forcing a station
to run the RMT during the top of 9th in the World Series or 3rd and 10 in
the Superbowl or the last episode of Oprah. 

Yes, our TV stations don't run most weather activations for the same reason
as everyone else--during our monsoon season we get too many repeat
activations for severe weather in remote places that really aren't part of
our stations' coverage areas. We do get one or two tornado warnings every
summer and some stations will carry those. I should also mention that while
our tornadoes are F0's or F1's and they will get your attention, they aren't
the mile-wide kind that take out a whole town. 

As for the AMBER Alerts, most of our TV stations as well as the radio
stations, run them as they come down. Most producers and news directors live
for the words "Breaking News" and there's nothing like an AMBER Alert to get
the news room jazzed up...maybe they do things differently in your state.
Here, they want photos and all the details ASAP and if they don't get them
within an hour of the activation, they go right to the AMBER Review
Committee and start complaining. 

Adrienne

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

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

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

_______________________________________________
This is the EAS Forum Discussion List

Please invite your friends to join our Forum!
http://lists.radiolists.net/mailman/listinfo/eas

And, remember the main page: http://eas.radiolists.net