[EAS] FM Enabled Phones to Receive Emergency Messages

[Clay Freinwald]

Some responses - 

Clay, that's a fair question. I'd think that most listeners who are savvy
enough to know about and use an FM receiver in their phone would be likely
to know which station is most likely to provide useful info. 

CF- How is Joe Average going to know where to tune that cellphone/radio to
get the info?  Especially if he is not a regular FM Listener...or if they
don't know where to find the N/T Stations because they only listen to
Hip-Hop etc?.    The time it would take him to find a station with the info
could be lengthy.   Perhaps the solution would be for stations that do have
public warning info to transmit something that would tell Joe's Cellphone
where to tune (more complexity) 

I'll admit, that's a big assumption. But with more news/talk formats
migrating to FM (Chicago and San Francisco are two that come to mind) it may
not be as big an assumption as it would have been a few years ago.

CF - We have a couple N/T FM stations here also (KIRO and KOMO).  My
question remains - How do you tell Joe which station has the info?...How do
you do this when you are talking 2 out of 30 stations?

I also recall that several Joplin stations, not normally known as news
outlets, did yeoman's work for days after their tornado getting information
out to the public. That's where the FM RX would be of greatest value.

CF -This might work in a small market where everyone drops everything and
runs wall-to-wall coverage.  In this market (Seattle) where it's about 25 by
75 miles, it would have to be something huge to cause that.   To get all
stations in this market (#13) to  break format to run information would
likely require an act of Congress.   

BOTTOM LINE - 

FM on Cell Phones a good idea with a whole lot of work to do to make the
concept viable, especially in larger markets.

Clay Freinwald
Seattle