Re: EAS(was Major Power Outage)

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 05:25 PM 8/18/2003, Dan Billings wrote:
>During the Sox game on Saturday afternoon on the local Fox station, EAS went
>off with thunderstorm warnings about 10 times in 90 minutes.  The storms
>were significant, but pretty typical summer thunderstorms.  I think
>activating the system so frequently will make it harder to get people to pay
>attention when it really matters.  I assume that the issue is with the
>station and they could have decided not to run all the messages.
>
>-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine

Strictly speaking, yes.  Any and all participation in State and Local 
(which includes weather) EAS Plans is optional for broadcast outlets.  Only 
participation in the National EAS plan, and running weekly/monthly tests, 
is absolutely required by the FCC.

This is part of the problem, actually...there's no drive to make EAS better 
because everyone knows they don't have to do State/Local EAS if they don't 
want to.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA