[EAS] CMAS

[Clay Freinwald]

I am forwarding the following from the Washington State EAS Remailer - FYI -
Clay Freinwald

 

(Phil Johnson is the LECC Chair for the Central Puget Local EAS Area that
includes Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue etc) 

 

(Brian Daly works for AT&T and was one of the designers of CMAS) 

 

(Tom Pierson is CE for the Bonneville N/T Station, KIRO-FM) 

 

 

From: eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org [mailto:eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org] On
Behalf Of Phil Johnson

 

Some local media are prepared to follow up.  In my view, most are not -
especially if there's an emergency at 2AM.

 

It used to be that every radio station had a live voice, an announcer if not
a newscaster, all the time they were on the air.  Today, that's the
exception.  The rule is that stations are automated and air syndicated or
other remotely-fed material for part or all of the broadcast day.  So an
AMBER or other Alert will interrupt the regular feed, play once, and return
to normal programming.  By the time a listener turns on the radio, the
original Alert may already have aired. and no one is at the studio to gather
and provide follow-up information.  The only exceptions I can think of in
the Seattle area are KIRO-FM and KOMO-AM/FM, which have news staff on duty
24/7.

 

Even at TV stations having news departments, there's usually just one person
- a staffer on the assignment desk - after the final evening newscast.  And
that person may or may not know how to feed locally-written text into the
graphics box.  In this case, the bell has been rung, but it will take some
time before the TV station can open the door and get more information to the
public.

 

Phil Johnson

Chair, CPS-LECC   

 

From: eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org [mailto:eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org] On
Behalf Of Clay Freinwald

 

As is EAS - My question is - 

 

Is " LOCAL MEDAI"  prepared to supply the follow up information?

 

Thanks Brian - 

 

Clay

 

From: eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org [mailto:eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org] On
Behalf Of DALY, BRIAN K

 

CMAS is a bell ringer not a full information source. This fact needs
consumer education in addition to alert originator education.

 

 

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy STIII, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

Clay Freinwald <k7cr at blarg.net> wrote:

This was, according to my cellphone - CMAS message #3. (444PM on Friday,
January 11, 2013)   Just like the previous CMAS Messages, the text read -
"Check Local Media" 

 

There is still a HUGE amount of education to do related to this.   I suspect
that the majority of cellphone users don 't fully understand what to do to
obtain the follow up information - and - I suspect that a lot of 'local
media '   are not prepared to supply it.

 

Clay Freinwald

WaState SECC

 

  

From: eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org [mailto:eas-wa-bounces at sea.sbe16.org] On
Behalf Of Tom Pierson

 

By the way that was not sarcasm.our news department was trying to get the
most updated information as everyone's phone in the newsroom went off and it
said go to your local media for information. 

The web site must have been flooded because the newsroom could not get it to
open.

We did get the audio link 20 min later and all is good

 

Tom Pierson | Director of Engineering

Bonneville Seattle Media Group

206.919.7090

 

KIRO Radio 97.3 FM | 710 ESPN Seattle | AM 770 KTTH | MyNorthwest.com