[EAS] TOO MANY EAS ALERTS ALIENATE LISTENERS

[Bill Ruck]

 From Dave Burns "dbradionow".

TOO MANY EAS ALERTS ALIENATE LISTENERS

It is raining EAS warnings again in southern California
and elsewhere, and some of the alerts -- including those carried
on the new CMAS (Commercial Mobile Alert System for the cellular
industry) -- cover areas too far away to concern listeners. See
Richard Rudman's posting in Tech Letters at the URL below.

 From our own limited research, a radio station in Barstow
was hammered with 38 EAS messages on August 22, most of which
were automatically forwarded over the air because of the local
Plan's recommendation. Another station found itself rebroad-
casting rancid/distorted audio because that's what the LP-1
sent.

Too many EAS warnings. Warnings for events that are geo-
graphically too far away to concern listeners. Rancid audio.
Can we get some adult supervision here?

<http://www.earthsignals.com/press/?p=1705>http://www.earthsignals.com/press/?p=1705 

I remember when the NWS was sending "flood watch" messages after a 
full week of hard rain.  I was called into the front office at KNBR 
and the GM was not happy.  (Tony Salvadore was profane on a good day; 
this particular day he exceeded all profanity norms!)  When I got 
back to my office -- and still standing since it hurt too much to sit 
down after my session with the GM -- I called the NWS up and said 
"It's been raining 40 days and 40 nights.  The animals are going by 
two by two.  And all you can do is to issue a "flood watch"?  "

They were not amused.

Bill Ruck
Curmudgeon
San Francisco