[EAS] EAS and CMAS

[Tim Stoffel]

There is a balance here in that if you want all stations to carry
emergency information, you have to make sure that the
program-interrupting emergency infoormation is really emergency
information.

I remember growing up that if the weather service issued a tornado watch
or warning in summertime, it was to be taken seriously. No problem with
stuff that threaten's lives.

Bot today we have so many warnings and watches that it seems to defeat
the whole purpose of emergency notification-- 'poisonous bee fart
warning' ;) If the CMAS system is used for all these spurious warnings,
broadcasters will soon abandon it-- they do not take kindly to program
interruptions.

So one one hand, requiring broadcasters to carru CMAS messages makes
sense if all you can do is publish a message that says 'check local
media'. But these alerts should only go out when there is a real,
imnent, life or property threatening emergency.

The other way to handle it would be for 1 or more stations in a market
to be willing to be the 'go-to' station for emergency information. the
CMAS alert would say 'tune to WXYZ for more information, or even
(optionally) tune the receiver to WXYZ. Even then, we don't need
'Pleasant weather alerts' or 'Bee fart warnings'!

Tim Stoffel