EAS in Mass

[Gary's Ice Cream]

Had a nice talk with a someone in the tech world at Comcast (she used to be
"Joe & Andy's producer at the old 98.5, WROR) and she said that there is a
software upload for some Tivo's that will stop an EAS test from interrupting
a playback of a recorded show.  Call customer service for more info (you may
have to have the call accelerated to a supervisor who is more familiar with
the situation).  But yes, Comcast is running EAS tests once and sometimes
twice every day for gawd-knows whatever reason.


-----Original Message-----
From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
[mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On Behalf Of
Larry Weil
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 3:49 PM
To: Boston radio e-mail list
Subject: Re: EAS in Mass


On Oct 25, 2011, at 3:04 PM, Gary's Ice Cream wrote:

> Who is in charge of EAS in Mass?  Comcast is sending "weekly required
tests"
> every night at between midnite and 1am..it causes chaos to TIVO and other
> devices.  Now they have begun sending one daily at 3pm as well. Their
> coordinator says that it only sends it when necessary - but he doesn't
know
> what he is talking about.

Weekly tests originate with the station/cable system, not with the EAS
people.  So the blame here is squarely on Comcast, unless they are
originating from the station that you are watching on Comcast.  I know from
my former employment at a Boston TV station that the general manager at the
time got quite upset that an EAS test was aired by Comcast during the first
segment of the 11 PM news on the first day of sweeps a few years ago, and
probably a few less-than-nice words were exchanged between him and someone
at Comcast.

Larry Weil
Lake Wobegone, NH