Re: EAS(y)...not...

[Rob Landry <umar@nerodia.wcrb.com>]

On Tue, 7 Sep 1999, Bob Nelson wrote:

> I believe stations must run the test when required
> (no advance warning!) and when the test is run it goes right over what
> the DJ or talk host is saying without said host even being aware of it.

Ooh, you've just hit one of my hot buttons. The rule for "required monthly
tests" ("RMT's" in the Commission's jargon) is that stations must
re-transmit them within 15 minutes of receiving them, regardless of
program material. In the case of WCRB and other classical stations this
is a serious problem; many of the pieces of music we play are longer than
15 minutes, and some of our people have been downrught annoyed,
particularly when WBMX screws up and sends the test at a time other than
the agreed-on 11:00am or 1:00 am.

Frankly, I think programming should only be interrupted for a real
emergency;  interrupting a piece of music for a test encourages listeners
to ignore the interruptions since they are (in practice) always tests.  If
there is ever a real emergency listeners will tend to ignore it, too,
thinking it's just another test.

[Aside: at WHRB in the seventies, our rule for interrupting programming
was that music should never be cut off abruptly except for a genuine
emergency; for stories of great urgency that were not emergencies, the
music would be faded out and a special announcement made (this was done
when President Kennedy was assassinated, I am told). For less urgent news,
e.g. the results of an important baseball or football game, it was the
rule to wait until the music was done, and for ordinary news, to wait
until the next scheduled newscast.]

There is a second problem with requiring stations like WCRB to rebroadcast
tests: they conceal from the listeners the fact that WCRB, a music station
which is unmanned 12 hours a day, is not a reliable source for information
about local emergencies. Almost all emergencies are local:  floods,
tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. There has never been a bona-fide national EAS
or EBS activation. 

But the most annoying thing of all is that the FCC requires stations to
let a competitor interrupt their programming whenever it feels the urge. 
On one occasion WBMX sent a test in the middle of the night but never sent
the close, so some two minutes of rock and roll went over WCRB before our
box timed out; on another, they interrupted a live Tanglewood concert with
a test which was a repeat of one they had run earlier the same day. I
think some of my colleagues were convinced this was deliberate on WBMX's
part; thankfully it hasn't happened recently.

Rob Landry
umar@nerodia.wcrb.com

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