[EAS] [sbe-eas] More on the Review of the Emergency Alert System from today's FCC Daily Digest

[Sean Donelan]

On Sun, 10 Apr 2016, Adrienne Abbott wrote:
> Here in Nevada we've had several Spanish stations express an interest in
> serving as an LP-S, only to back out as soon as they find out that they
> would need to have someone available 24/7/365 to translate an EAS activation
> ASAP.

Why have that requirement.  The FCC rules imply, but don't actually 
require LP stations to have 24/7/365 coverage.  Would spanish translation 
of emergency messages 12 hours a day be better than zero hours a day? The
rest of the time, they will automatically relay the english language
message from the LP-1 station just as they do now.

Overnight and weekend coverage at LP-1 stations in small markets is
getting rarer.  Television stations are more likely to have staff 
overnight than radio stations in small markets.  But even TV stations
are automated.

> None of our Spanish language stations are live 24/7. Many of them are
> automated and run programming which originates in LA or Texas or even
> out-of-country. Some Spanish language broadcasters have also told me that if
> there was a wide-spread disaster, they would stay home and help their
> families rather than go to their stations, even if it meant the station
> would go off the air.

Not a surprise.  In a regional/nation-wide catastrophe, assume some staff 
are going home to check on their families.  You can't lock the doors and 
force them to stay. At the same time, you will have other staff 
spontaneously showing up to work.

Another reason emergency systems should operate in automatic mode, with
human supervision not action.  If the one person needs to leave, for 
whatever reason, the system will still operate.