[EAS] : Fallout Over False Alert Continues

[Tim Stoffel]

So, would you rather have the possibility of a relatively small fine for having 'strict time' set, or actually getting much larger fine for transmitting a false EAN?

The way the FCC interprets things these days, if you don't catch the false EAN after the first 'brrrrrp', it is 'willful and repeated'. Especially if they can exact a large sum of money from an 'evil, overprofitable broadcaster', and make an example out of them, by narrowly interpreting the rules?

Remember the family in Nebraska who was fined $90,000 by the USDA when one of their children raised and sold rabbits for a few months without getting a USDA permit? Imagine the FCC doing this to broadcasters. And they have tried. And they got seriously repudiated for doing so.

Basically anymore, when it comes to making government compliance decisions, your dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. There are even cases now (birds and wind generators) where you are going to pay a fine to the government no matter how well you run your operations (not killing any birds is basically impossible), and that is to be considered part of the 'cost of doing business'. When government regulates with a hand that heavy, it is time for government to be 'refarmed'.

Tim Stoffel, KNPB

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Dave Kline wrote - 

FEMA may recommend action, but if it is contradictory to the section 47 Code of Federal Regulations, I'm siding with the guys who inspect, cite and fine based on the regs that govern broadcasters.

Amen to that -