[EAS] M(e)ssage Length

[Dave Turnmire]

There is another issue that IMHO, hasn't received adequate attention.  
That is the way TTS combined with the current FCC rules can result in 
message length getting increased.  Say that you are emergency management 
generating a CAP alert that is text only... no associated audio file.  
And say that you have determined the text is short enough that it won't 
take the TTS generated audio won't exceed 2 minutes.

Now, this alert arrives at an LP station, whose decoder... as required 
by law... ADDS text (and thus audio) that isn't part of the text the 
emergency manager put in his CAP message.  Namely... the text that says 
something along the lines of "A CIVIL AUTHORITY HAS ISSUED AN CHILD 
ABDUCTION EMERGENCY FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES/AREAS: Hodunk mystate; AT 
12:00 PM ON OCT 27, 2014 EFFECTIVE UNTIL 1:00 PM. MESSAGE FROM MSEMS. 
".  All of that takes added time.  Doesn't provide any useful info that 
isn't already part of the "CAP Text" and may even add confusion, but 
none-the-less, the FCC requires it.  So... what gets truncated if this 
part results in the total length exceeding 2 minutes?  Yeah... the part 
paid professional emergency managers thought was important.

In my state, our emergency managers have tried to keep the messages not 
only short of 2 minutes (more like 90 seconds), but short enough they 
can repeat it once since people likely weren't paying attention right 
away.  That is a challenge and in the case of our most common "real" 
alerts, Amber Alerts... typically isn't possible. You are, after all, 
trying to describe the kid, the abductor, and his car, amongst other 
things.  None of which, of course, is included in the FCC mandated 
text/audio.  A variation of this theme can occur at times with 
truncating on-screen text of TV and cable companies.

In short... as Dave Kline indicated... don't cut it close.

Dave