[EAS] new legislative activity on EAS/WEA

[Barry Mishkind]

At 06:56 AM 7/20/2018, Ed Czarnecki wrote:
>When an applicant for a broadcast facility signs the application to be a licensee - under the Communications Act - they assent to certain public service responsibilities.  That's a quid pro quo for access to a public good (the airwaves).

>At the same time, the government cannot compel speech. 

        And, although almost no one responds when
        this issue/solution is raised, it is ESSENTIAL
        to get buy in from Management and Programming.
        The MAIN reason EAS is dying is that Management
        wants little to do with EAS -except to back up 
        the programmers - and Programmers do not want
        the level of announcements that are being delivered.

        If Programmers got together with the NWS and the FEMA,
        with a little pressure from the right place, it might be
        much easier to develop announcements that are 
        not going to drive programmers nutsy, with useless
        county designations and poorly constructed text
        that can actually detract from the station's current
        efforts. (Stations should take EAS off Automatic
        during manned hours - and use the info to go live.)

        Bill - you can be Emperor, I don't want the job. 
        What I do want is for the various agencies (including
        the EMs) to cooperate with broadcast and broadcast
        to think of the community rather than the usually
        easy way to criticize the EMs and agency "help."

        The fact that there is no SECC is so many areas
        should already bring the answer to the surface.

        Personally, I"m so tired of the silo wars. The NWS,
        the FEMA, the FCC, etc, need to play nice. Sadly,
        the proposed legislation will largely fall on 
        broadcasters without solving the existing agency
        kingdom problems.

        Go ahead. Ignore the elephant. 

        All the efforts of the tech guys and those few in 
        DC that actually care about how this works will
        only succeed in a few areas (like WA state) where
        there is a minimal level of inter-group cooperation.
        Until the GMs and PDs make it part of their commitment,
        there can be no solution (apart from EAN) on the
        part of broadcasting.

        What was the line from a couple of decades ago:
        "Can't we all get along?"

        [expecting silence]