[EAS] Multilingual support for CAP messages

[Rod Zeigler]

Let me throw something out here that I have proposed to the FCC.
First, broadcast EAS is the wrong technology to use for multilingual 
alerts, especially when it gets past 2 different languages.
Those that do not speak English are probably not listening to the 
English speaking station that is sending the alert, so why are we 
alerting an almost non-existent audience.
WEA is MUCH better suited to the various languages, and phones capable 
of WEA are ubiquitous in these populations.
The question that bothered me about this idea was answered when I read 
that phones can be set up in the language native to the user.
So, the alert is sent out via WEA. Further information can then be 
gained by the user accessing a trusted source in their native language.
Broadcast is much better suited to being the information disseminator 
instead of the alerting agent.
Am I saying to go away from alerts on broadcast? No, not by a long shot.
What I am saying is alert people with the technology they have on them 
at all times and then let them choose where to get further information.
The only impediment to this is the cell industry which set their own 
rules when WEA was established.
It is time for the FCC to drag them kicking and screaming into the EAS 
fold with the rest of us, unfunded mandates and all.
I live in a small (10K) town in rural Nebraska where there are 20+ 
different spoken languages in our local schools.
Sending alerts in even half of those languages would destroy our 
capability to warn in our native language in a timely manner.
While I can see the value of multilingual alerting, it must be done with 
the correct technology, and broadcast is not it.
Rod

-- 
R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
KRVN-KTIC-KNEB-KAMI