[EAS] Alternate universe

[tpt at sevenrangesradio.com]

Received a missive from the Ohio Association of Broadcasters regarding recent FCC EAS directives.

Must of it had to do with TV, but was struck by one paragraph concerning radio:

"For all audio EAS messages (including those on broadcast television and radio), the EAS message must air in full at least once, and the text should be spoken at a pace that allows for a listener to understand the content.  Put differently, the text of the alert should be delivered via audio in a manner and cadence that is sufficient for consumers who do not have hearing loss to readily comprehend it."

Looks like the NWS needs to fire "perfect Paul."  Not to mention the difficulty in getting a clean audio feed off of their narrow-band transmitters.

Several years ago a tornado roared through DC & suburban Maryland. NWS missed it, but some of the local TV stations caught it on their weather radar & got their weather guys on the air to issue a warning.  After the storm, the Commission chastised the stations for not doing closed captioning.

That fall -at the radio show in DC, at a session on EAS attended by FCC folks, someone from one of those TV stations got up and suggested that if they were going to get punished for airing alerts, they might just not do it the next time around.