[EAS] Communication Services Down

[Adrienne Abbott]

The problem is that most radio and TV news departments are staffed by
Journalism school graduates and J-Schools teach Print journalism. In fact,
most J-Schools tend to treat broadcasting as the red-headed stepchild of the
news business. As a result, the journalism graduates come into the broadcast
industry unaware that TV and radio stations are licensed by the Federal
Government to serve the public interest of their community and are regulated
by the FCC. Because print journalism doesn't have anything like the
broadcasters' obligation to serve the community, journalism students don't
understand why "old school" broadcasters believe in providing public
information and public warnings, whether it's an EAS activation or educating
the public about the broadcasters' commitment to staying on the air in a
disaster. 

In my Assignment Editor days, I used to send new reporters back to Master
Control to find and read all three pages of the station's FCC license. Not
all of them followed that instruction...Now I'm working on getting stations
to make sure the computers in the news department and studios receive EAS
messages. CAP EAS should be considered a news source, even if the station
doesn't rebroadcast EAS messages. 
Adrienne

Adrienne Abbott, W6BCY
Nevada EAS Chair

Barry Mishkind wrote:
        This is something the industry can/should do:
        educate public about this and why broadcast
        is still the best emergency source of information.