[EAS] Pandora; Walmart - EAS alerting

[Sean Donelan]

On Fri, 30 Sep 2016, wpio-fm wrote:
> I've wondered if and when FEMA or the FCC will force EAS alerting in
> more places.  A Walmart store of shoppers will have more public ears
> over its paging system than a small town AM radio station.  Does the
> government (FEMA, FCC, Civil Defense) care about them?

Force? HBO, Muzak and many others were a voluntary EBS participants for 
decades until FEMA ended the Emergency Action Notification Network (EANN) 
program for budget reasons.

In tornado country, I know some of the big box stores have a weather alert 
radio connected to their in-store PA system.  I've heard the national 
weather service announcement come over the store speakers.

On the technical side, I don't know Walmart's specific set-up, but other 
in-store background "environment" sound is not a live broadcast. Its a 
PC in the store, playing audio files that are downloaded a few times a 
month over the Internet.

In theory, someone could write a CAP software application which retrieves 
IPAWS messages over the Internet and plays them on the in-store PC. The 
FCC does not licensee or regulate PC software or in-store music systems. 
So it would need to be voluntary participation.