RE: My Research on Minot, ND

["Sid Schweiger" <sid@wrko.com>]

>>This has little to do with monopolistic group owners<<

This has NOTHING to do with monopolistic group owners.  What upset people was that there was no contact to get EAS activated.  It wouldn't matter whether there was one owner in Minot or 30.  EAS activation for local events of any nature is strictly optional, and if all the owners in Minot or anywhere else decide not to participate, at the moment there is nothing that can be done to compel their participation for other than the tests and the EAN that the FCC requires.

Group ownership is seen today as the ultimate evil in the radio business, blamed for everything...and while it may be directly to blame for some things, in all fairness let's not blame it for this.

The FCC was walking a fine line with EAS.  The intent and design of the system place the air product of one station onto other stations (competitors' stations) under certain conditions.  If the Commission had taken it any farther...like mandating EAS alerts under conditions such as the example in Minot...it would have been roundly denounced as mandating programming that not all owners would necessarily want to carry, at a point long after the FCC had gotten out of the programming business.  Such a decision would have doomed local EAS participation from the start.  As it is, there have been several notorious examples of just the opposite of what happened in Minot, when either local stations or FEMA botched tests that ended up taking over the programming on radio stations with "properly" installed EAS equipment (i.e., in the program lines), with no immediate way to cut it off other than pulling the plug on the EAS box.  Such incidents don't exactly instill confidence in the system and are the reason why some owners opt out altogether.

Sid Schweiger
MIS Manager, Entercom Boston LLC
WAAF-WEEI-WQSX-WRKO-WVEI