[EAS] Humans thwart disaster alerts - - URL

[Barry Mishkind]

At 03:27 PM 10/2/2017, Botterell, Arthur at CalOES wrote:
>Increasingly there's a gap between our scientific capacity to generate highly-relevant and specific warnings and broadcasters' ability to deliver them.  That, I'm afraid, is ultimately the broadcast industry's problem to solve.  Time won't stand still.
>
>We "praise the polygon" because it's the best way we have right now of targeting alerts to the people who need them, and not to people who don't.  I understand that broadcasters, especially radios, don't exactly know what to do with that targeting, but that doesn't make the targeting wrong.  It's just a new challenge to broadcasters' ingenuity.

        Art, I have *NEVER* said targeting is wrong,
        What I have said is that it is not the sole responsibility
        of broadcasters to "reach out" to agencies that are
        not very interested in talking, so that their product
        meets the needs (didn't someone talk about needs
        earlier today?) of on-air announcements.

        One concept that was advanced got nearly 0 
        attention from NWS was issuing an EAS customized
        for broadcast, perhaps using a different code, perhaps
        using "first in line in a time period" ... or some other
        way to run the alert and then not run message flooding.

        The broadcasters' ability has not changed. But by
        working together, broadcasters and agencies can make
        the most of each others abilities. 

        One suggestion I've written about for over a decade:
        let's get rid of county operational areas and relate
        to the audience the storm is 75 miles East of (Art's House),
        or serving is to the "area within 50 miles of Los Angeles"

        No driver from several states away will understand
        the tornado warning for Shoehorn County... They 
        need to know the risk is 35 miles North of Capital City.

        Do these things and EAS will be much more welcome
        in the broadcast arena.

        Unlike the cell companies which mostly do not pass WEAk
        alerts.

>Art
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Barry Mishkind
>
>At 12:45 PM 10/2/2017, Dave Kline wrote:
>
>>But for the most part people are just idiots when it comes to alerting.
>>They shut the stuff off. What are we supposed to do then?
>
>        This is the third leg of the EAS stool, 
>        where it is imperative that the NWS,
>        for example, stop with the polygon praise,
>        and TALK to stations, so as to redeem
>        whatever respect can be restored to EAS
>        in most places.
>
>        Now, this is usually the point (and I have
>        the email history to prove it) that the
>        NWS says they want to talk and cooperate,
>        but nothing happens except with a few
>        NWS people who go rogue and do talk.
>        Nationally, if we don't praise the polygon,
>        NWS doesn't want to talk to us.
>
>        At the same time, those few places where the NWS
>        and broadcasters talk usually means the
>        system works a lot better. 
>
>>We can bring water to the horse but what the horse does with it up to the horse.
>>
>>----------------------------------------
>>Dave Kline
>>----------------------------------------
>>
>
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Barry Mishkind - Tucson, AZ - 520-296-3797