[EAS] Pizza Pizza Alert

[Dave Kline]

I totally agree with you Ed.

I was simply raising the point (or the counterpoint as it may be) that anything that is not the two tones in the attention signal as defined, is a variance from those two tones. There becomes a continuum, which at some point the audio is so diverse from the two-tone signal that it is clearly not a violation.

For instance, if a movie contains audio of someone dialing a telephone that generates signals based on two audio tones does that now, constitute a violation? I think not, but in today's environment who's to say? 
Since it is difficult to judge where that boundary lies, one is better off not pushing it. (The boundary or the phone buttons.)

One might argue that intent plays a part in all of it. Is the intent of the pizza commercial tones to get someone's attention? If it is, can it then be defined as an attention signal, and if that is the case, is it an attention signal that is aired outside of an official EAS alert? 

Clearly anything that might be mistaken for an EAS attention signal should not be used. And if it causes listeners to think there is an actual alert of some kind, that also plays a part. If the signal used in the spot can be mistaken by someone as being some type of attention signal, those who air it are flirting with trouble. Since the intent of any commercial is to get the viewer's/listener's attention, it may be extrapolated that anything in such a spot is intended to be an attention grabber. Therefore, being it is contained in a commercial advertisement, it could make even the most benign "noise" hard to defend. 

Do the two-tone signals of a phone being dialed in a movie carry the same weight as the those same phone tones being dialed in a commercial? How long is too long to press one button on a phone? At what point is it a phone being dialed, even if ever so slowly vs being a simulation of an attention signal?

I have not heard/seem the spot, but based on the descriptions here, I would advise anyone planning to air it to really think hard, twice, before doing so.
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Dave Kline
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On Apr 5, 2018, at 9:02 AM, Ed Czarnecki wrote:

>Refer back to FCC Enforcement Advisory 2013-7.  It's pretty darn clear:
>"Any transmission, including broadcast, of the EAS Attention Signal or
>codes, or a simulation of them, under any circumstances other than a genuine
>alert or an authorized test of the EAS system violates federal law and
>undermines the important public safety protections the EAS provides."

>-----Original Message-----
>From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Dave Kline

>That being said using three tones, none of which are included in the two