[EAS] FEMA Announces Addition of Premiere Networks as PEP Station

[Al Kenyon]

To answer some operational questions that have come up following the press
release:

The Premiere Networks delivery system is tested and operational now.
Actually it has been in operation for quite some time. Premiere has
installed FEMA PEP equipment at both their main uplink location in LA and
their standby uplink site in Texas.

Should you want to establish a connection from their Premiere XDS satellite
receiver to a monitor input on your EAS device you can find complete
instructions here:
http://engineering.premiereradio.com/files/pages/XDSDocsMan.html

If you do connect to Premiere I would appreciate it if you would let us know
by sending an email to IPAWS at fema.dhs.gov That is completely voluntary and
has no bearing on regulations or enforcement, I would just like to know if
folks consider this additional service sufficiently valuable to hook it up.

While both NPR and Premiere are now officially FEMA sources of national
level EAS I have seen no revised guidance issued by FCC regarding monitoring
requirements. I recommend that stations that choose to monitor Premiere or
NPR do so only as a supplement to their current monitoring assignments. It
is most likely premature to disregard your current monitoring assignments
and hope that a visiting Enforcement Bureau officer accepts a configuration
that is not shown in your State EAS Plan.

Regards,

Al Kenyon