[EAS] Blue Alerts Are Back

[Barry Mishkind]

At 11:12 AM 5/26/2017, Mike McCarthy wrote:
>The people that need to know about this concern at the NWS know.  

        Mike, I believe I *started* with that point. Did you
        not see that?

>The challenge is to balance this issue against the interests of all the other
>consumers across the weather enterprise which have different information
>needs.

        Yes ... of course. But up until this point, all
        the effort has largely been in the tech community - and
        that means individuals and the BWWG. Few others
        have done anything but try to take credit for the
        efforts of others - but this is not the place to discuss that. 

>In areas where severe weather and SVR's are common, such messages are part
>of the landscape and most people don't react to them anyway. However,
>where SVR's are not common, that's a tougher assessment to decide on
>airing a call to action product which has a history of being serial over a
>short period of time.

        That merely considers the status quo.
        As was mentioned several times on this list
        and elsewhere, if the LPs are not "online"
        a lot of effort is wasted... even if there were
        "broadcast friendly product."

>This is why we're talking about a broadcast friendly product which
>minimizes the intrusion duration.

        A parallel goal. 

> If we can get a source side product into
>the EAS box in a manner which doesn't require years of code writing and
>tests, then it may be possible to revisit this with management by stating
>there will no longer be multiple 2 minute messages for a line of summer
>thunderstorms during afternoon drive. 30 seconds and out.

        That needs to stop - and be advertised now. Regardless
        of the content. Then, by engaging with the air personnel,
        it may be possible to craft what they want - not tell them
        what they want.

>Another is to challenge sales to turn weather alerts into revenue.

        This is not an NWS issue. 

>"Severe weather messages are brought to you by Ed's Roofing. Call us to
>repair your hail or high wind damage. 222-555-8888. Ed's Roofing."
>
>---Just don't run them adjacent to the EAS messages themselves.

        Sure would be inconvenient if the jock says:
        "severe weather is brought to you by Mike McCarthy"
        ... or some company.