[sbe-eas] Tests, tones and technology...

[Adrienne Abbott]

There is an epidemic of criticism being leveled at broadcasters as a result
of today's National EAS Test and some of it is coming from prominent members
of the electronic media who should know better. People, get your act
together and stop betraying your ignorance of how the Emergency Alert System
works.

 


>From the perspective of the broadcasters, this test was a success. FEMA took

over the broadcasters' airwaves to deliver a product to the public via the
Emergency Alert System and the equipment that the FCC designed and mandated
that we use. EAS worked as designed. The product that FEMA gave us was less
than perfect and because the equipment worked the way the FCC designed it to
work, there was nothing broadcasters could do to fix or improve that
product. An EAN activation takes over our stations and we have no control
once that activation is issued. We did our job-we got the message with all
its problems out to the public. 

 

The fact that the problems we encountered were exactly those that many of
have predicted only enhances the message that we have been trying to
communicate to the FCC for all these years. Now the FCC--and we--have proof
that the PEP network doesn't reach everywhere and that you can't rely on the
NPR network to back up PEP, particularly when NPR is given a faulty product.


 

The answer is not to throw out all things EAS, but to take what we have
learned and use it to improve the system. We know so much more about EAS now
than we knew this morning. This was the first time the EAN has ever been
used to distribute a message nation-wide. How many projects are less than
perfect on the first attempt? If we demanded perfection the first time
something is done, we would still be living in caves listening to the wooly
mammoths bellow in the dark. Instead, we know now that EAS can be used to
issue a national warning, we just have to solve the problems with the audio
at the source. All FEMA needs for that is a good audio engineer. We also
have to make sure the public and our media know and understand what
happened.

Adrienne

 

 

"Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN 

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