[EAS] LPFM Issues

[Rod Zeigler]

Mark Piepkorn and any other LPFM operators.
Please accept my personal apologies if you felt that I was painting with too broad a brush. I probably was to a degree.

While not making excuses please understand that many of our (meaning SECC's) experiences with LPFM's have been on the lower side of the negative/positive scale. There are those LPFM's that are hobby stations manned by experienced broadcast technical people just for fun or as an adjunct to other duties. No worries about these folks as they are experienced with all of the ins and outs. These are the top of the positive scale.  There are others (these are the ones we have issues with) that heard about LPFM's and decided to run headlong into the experience with both eyes firmly closed. Dedicated broadcasters, be they LPFM's or full time professionals are always on the positive end of the scale in my book.

The one thing I, as a state chairman, have a real problem with is trying to open a line of communications with the majority of the LPFM operators. I know one engineer who installed a number of LPFM's for Catholic churches across the state, but that is one tiny niche and the engineer that installed those stations is more than qualified to handle ETRS and all of the rest of their regulatory obligations. It is the onesie's  that are hard to contact since our SECC has a limited staff with limited time and budget. Maybe I am lazy, but if there were state LPFM organizations (even as simple as a FB page) a lot of information could be exchanged in a timely manner.

There are a number of things that SECC's deal with, but timely information dissemination seems to be one of the bigger ones. The Nebraska SECC has representatives from Emergency Management, both State and Local, State Broadcast Assn., Ne. Educational Telecommunications, a TV engineer, a radio engineer and PEP representative (me), the NWS state alert coordinator, State Patrol, Cable operations, and we are open to anyone that wants to join in on our conference calls, and occasional personal meetings. We have become a sub-committee of the state public safety communications committee which opened up the availability of clerical help, which we needed quite badly. Our state broadcast assn. has created a second mailing list of only engineers (or those that have engineering type duties) that work in, or are responsible for, broadcast stations (any kind) in the state. That particular mailing list has been VERY helpful. Any that are reading this and have responsibilities in Nebraska for LPFM's or any other kind of broadcast station that is not on the list, if you would please e-mail me I will see that you get on that list (membership in Nebraska Broadcasters Assn. is not required).

One other thing, you will find that Clay, Adrienne, and others on this particular list have dedicated much time and personal sacrifice to try to make EAS a working system for everyone. In the last 6 months it has been as intense as I have ever seen with changes and proposed changes coming in almost monthly. Right now we are all waiting to see what the regulatory process kicks out and where that leaves all of us. Stay tuned! The information will be on this list well before most other venues.

-- 
R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
KRVN-KTIC-KNEB-KAMI
Chairman, Ne. SECC
Bd. Member, NEBA
www.krvn.com