[EAS] ETRS annual filing notification

[Bennett Kobb]

> Is the operating assumption that every broadcaster has a communications attorney on retainer to let them know?  Or is there some mechanism where by the FCC emails the licensee?  And if so... how does one go about making sure the FCC has up to date email addresses for that?

After my EAS presentation at the Grassroots Radio Conference in New Orleans, worried stations approached me to ask why FCC had not informed them about the ETRS deadlines.

Unlike FEMA IPAWS, which has mailing lists for such things (I maintained the lists when I was there), the FCC doesn't tend to remind individual licensees of their compliance obligations.

I tried to point out in comments to the EAS-WEA proceeding that ETRS is of little value in ascertaining forwarding of actual EAS alerts (not tests) to the public.

While the FCC imagines futuristic new alerting technologies in that proceeding, I believe it needs to address longstanding practical issues with the existing EAS and ETRS.

But few who filed comments so far seem to be concerned.

Bennett Kobb
San Marcos TX