[EAS] The Real Cost of Converters

[wpio-fm]

Thanks for this post. Your "labor of love" in the world of EAS is no
small thing, albeit I'd like to make some counterpoints to you.

On 3/4/2012 12:24 PM, Adrienne Abbott wrote:
> Tight budgets aren't limited to "noncoms"...the economy has affected
> every station and dealing with the impact is a matter of priorities.
> A converter box buys you three years,

Not if the FCC comes to its senses and realizes it is foolish to require
video capabilities to an aural license.

> and you are betting that your original EAS equipment is going to
> continue performing for that period of time

Yes I am.  It has no moving parts*.  Lightening is the only thing that
will take my unit(s) out and I have spares. *no ticker-tape printer

> while you continue to feed it printer paper, printer ribbons and
> other "consumables". During that time you or your staff will continue
> to document EAS activities by hand as you do now and deal with the
> problems that come up because the printer got jammed or ran out of
> paper during a bad storm, as you do now.

Not so in my situation:  I print messages to the hard drive of a netbook
computer via the ASCII text output of the EAS unit.  Its screen is
visible in the control room.

> While some converter boxes provide you with some CAP information
> other products do not. So you may or may not have all the details of
> an activation for an evacuation ordered for a fire or flood or
> hazardous material emergency, or the description of the suspect and
> child in an AMBER Alert, details you don't have now without CAP
> messages.

Not so because when Amber Alerts were added for which there was no code
(in original EAS) All stations had to replace their eproms for Amber
with code it to interrupt programming.

> But other stations in your market are getting the full CAP product
> which will have that detailed information and more and they'll be
> capable of repeating that warning or AMBER Alert on the air and to
> callers and they'll be able to quickly and easily put that
> information on their website, sending it to their text message
> subscribers and adding it to their social media, even putting it on
> their RDS, while you or your staff are still trying to figure out
> what the activation was and who sent it. Just how long do you think
> people will continue to listen to your station?

Many of us don't operate our stations based on what other stations in
our market are doing.  Regardless, the legal obligation the Feds is
foremost, and the thrust of the "will cap converters" make us legal
discussion.

Some years back, the big AM talker here (WDBO) was interrupting it's
programming with every EAS on the code list and listeners got so fed up
with it, the station had to stop. ((too many storm watch alerts during
Rush!)

So, but for National Alert or an Amber Alert, it's all a judgement
call...and fully legal if only those two alerts are set to automatically
do the program interrupt (as well as the monthly LP1/2 alerts)

> And how's it going to look when a reporter for your local newspaper
> asks you why your locally-supported, non-commercial, non-profit,
> community radio station wasn't able to provide information about the
> flood, fire, hazmat spill or AMBER Alert and you have to explain that
> you didn't have the information that other stations did because it
> cost too much? Do you really want to be doing your next fund drive
> with that story in the background?

It's a legitimate scenario but evidently wasn't enough to get into the
mind of the Feds since they ONLY require that broadcast licensees relay
TWO alerts: National and Amber.

Randy