[EAS] WEA used in NYC bombings

[Robertm]

I agree with much of what John says. I was in NYC for all this. I got a CNN alert at 6:33, a CBS news alert at 6:53 and WEA at 6:54. CBS and CNN had the capability to show pictures. Since,as John already pointed out, radio can't show pictures it really didn't have a role in this. 

Most New York radio stations carried announcements but they couldn't do much more than repeat the name. 

Richard rightly points out that stations need to decide what their mission is. If it is all music, then do minimal EAS requirements. When I was at an all music station in NYC, we were set for EAN only. Since that time, I am not aware of any EAS activation in NYC. If I were in an area with other specific threats like TOR, CAE or a nuclear power plant alert, I would suggest to management that they include the appropriate alert. Somehow it seems unfair that a station pretend to offer public service when they are just re-using info from others. 

In NYC, one group of music stations have a retransmission agreement with a TV network for major emergencies plus access to their own news/talk station.  That's 5 music stations. Another group is both part of a TV network and has 2 all news stations in the same building. That's 3 music stations. I believe 2 others have TV network news access plus their own news/talk station. Another has PBS access. That's 11 English speaking music stations. There are 3 Spanish and 4 talk which accounts for the 18 FM stations in the market. 

I disagree with Mike's assertion that this applies only to the largest markets. I was in a market below 60 this morning and the TV news coverage was quite similar to any larger market. Radio may not have a news room but TVs do and they even have audio that can be used. 


> On Sep 20, 2016, at 15:07, John Willkie <johnwillkie at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 1.  NYC Police did not direct people to or from "broadcast" sources in this quite effective use of an emergency alerting system.  They referred people to media