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7th February 2011, 05:02 PM
http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0203/DOC-304451A1.pdf
FCC ACTION PAVES WAY FOR FIRST-EVER PRESIDENTIAL ALERT TO BE AIRED ACROSS
U.S. ON NATION’S EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
Washington D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission today took action to help pave the way for the
first-ever Presidential alert to be aired across the United States on the Nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS).
The national test will help determine the reliability of the EAS system and its effectiveness in notifying the
public of emergencies and potential danger nationwide and regionally.
The FCC voted unanimously to adopt a Third Report and Order that sets forth rules that will facilitate the
federal government’s efforts to conduct a national EAS test by transmitting a Presidential Alert from
Washington, D.C. to television and radio broadcasters, cable systems and satellite service providers who will
then deliver the alert to the American public.
The test will assist the FCC, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Weather Service (NWS), with assessing the current system and
better determining what improvements need to be made to further strengthen the Nation’s EAS, particularly as
broadband technologies continue to emerge. Although the date for the National EAS test has yet to be
determined, establishing the rules is an important first step in the process.
As Next Generation EAS systems become operational over the next few years, they will complement other
public alert and warning systems now being developed, including FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning
System (IPAWS) and the Commercial Mobile Alert System that will enable consumers to receive alerts through
a variety of multi-media platforms on their smart-phones, blackberries and other mobile broadband devices.
The national test will require EAS participants to be part of the exercise and to receive and transmit a live code
that includes a Presidential alert message to their respective viewers and listeners. The FCC, FEMA and NWS,
in coordination with EAS participants, will work together to launch a nationwide EAS Public Education and
Awareness Campaign that will include press statements, workshops, regional outreach, and television and radio
public service announcements targeted to consumers in general, and more specifically persons with disabilities
and seniors, as well as first responders and state, local and tribal governments. The outreach will help ensure
that the American public is aware that the national test will be conducted and the benefits of these kinds of
public alerts in a real emergency.
I had never heard of Federal News Radio before. Isn't the need for your own radio station a sign you've grown way to big?
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=15&sid=2262066
By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com
Everybody has heard the national Emergency Alert System (EAS). Those familiar "duck calls" that reassure listeners "THIS is a test...this is ONLY a test..."
The FCC is planning an upgrade to the tests by including presidential announcements in the system.
Lisa Fowlkes, deputy chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC, explained to the Federal Drive the Presidential Alert isn't new.
"The primary goal is to provide the President with a mechanism to communicate with the American public during times of national emergency," said Fowlkes. The change, she said, is that prior to last week's order there was no rule in place to call for or allow a test from top to bottom.
Fowlkes said, "There's never been a test from top to bottom where it's issued by FEMA and it goes straight down to all the different levels of EAS to the American public. So this is a way for us to glean, okay, if there were an actual emergency and the federal government needed to activate the Presidential EAS, making sure that it actually works the way it's designed to."
Now that there's a rule in place, the next challenges are going to be working with all the stakeholders on timing of the test and to reach out to the public so they understand it's a test and not a real emergency, Fowlkes said.
"We want to make sure that it works the way it's designed to," Fowlkes said. "If there are things that work well, great. If there are things that don't work well, we can work with EAS participants and with state and local governments as well as our federal partners to correct or improve what doesn't work."
At the same time, said Fowlkes, the FCC is looking at how wireless broadband could also enhance the EAS as part of a recommendation that was in the FCC's National Broadband Plan from last year.
The idea is to leverage broadband and the Internet for emergency alerting with the "Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) being developed by FEMA and the wireless industry."
CMAS would allow three kinds of text messaging or wireless alert to be sent, said Fowlkes:
* Presidential Alerts - "Which would be the same as what the president might issue or FEMA might issue through the EAS system,
* Imminent Threat Alerts - Which Fowlkes said would warn when "there's a hurricane coming or a tornado coming," and then the
* Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alerts - Alerts related to missing or endangered children due to an abduction or runaway situation.
Fowlkes said the CMAS is slated to begin deployment in April 2012
FCC ACTION PAVES WAY FOR FIRST-EVER PRESIDENTIAL ALERT TO BE AIRED ACROSS
U.S. ON NATION’S EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
Washington D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission today took action to help pave the way for the
first-ever Presidential alert to be aired across the United States on the Nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS).
The national test will help determine the reliability of the EAS system and its effectiveness in notifying the
public of emergencies and potential danger nationwide and regionally.
The FCC voted unanimously to adopt a Third Report and Order that sets forth rules that will facilitate the
federal government’s efforts to conduct a national EAS test by transmitting a Presidential Alert from
Washington, D.C. to television and radio broadcasters, cable systems and satellite service providers who will
then deliver the alert to the American public.
The test will assist the FCC, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Weather Service (NWS), with assessing the current system and
better determining what improvements need to be made to further strengthen the Nation’s EAS, particularly as
broadband technologies continue to emerge. Although the date for the National EAS test has yet to be
determined, establishing the rules is an important first step in the process.
As Next Generation EAS systems become operational over the next few years, they will complement other
public alert and warning systems now being developed, including FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning
System (IPAWS) and the Commercial Mobile Alert System that will enable consumers to receive alerts through
a variety of multi-media platforms on their smart-phones, blackberries and other mobile broadband devices.
The national test will require EAS participants to be part of the exercise and to receive and transmit a live code
that includes a Presidential alert message to their respective viewers and listeners. The FCC, FEMA and NWS,
in coordination with EAS participants, will work together to launch a nationwide EAS Public Education and
Awareness Campaign that will include press statements, workshops, regional outreach, and television and radio
public service announcements targeted to consumers in general, and more specifically persons with disabilities
and seniors, as well as first responders and state, local and tribal governments. The outreach will help ensure
that the American public is aware that the national test will be conducted and the benefits of these kinds of
public alerts in a real emergency.
I had never heard of Federal News Radio before. Isn't the need for your own radio station a sign you've grown way to big?
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=15&sid=2262066
By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com
Everybody has heard the national Emergency Alert System (EAS). Those familiar "duck calls" that reassure listeners "THIS is a test...this is ONLY a test..."
The FCC is planning an upgrade to the tests by including presidential announcements in the system.
Lisa Fowlkes, deputy chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC, explained to the Federal Drive the Presidential Alert isn't new.
"The primary goal is to provide the President with a mechanism to communicate with the American public during times of national emergency," said Fowlkes. The change, she said, is that prior to last week's order there was no rule in place to call for or allow a test from top to bottom.
Fowlkes said, "There's never been a test from top to bottom where it's issued by FEMA and it goes straight down to all the different levels of EAS to the American public. So this is a way for us to glean, okay, if there were an actual emergency and the federal government needed to activate the Presidential EAS, making sure that it actually works the way it's designed to."
Now that there's a rule in place, the next challenges are going to be working with all the stakeholders on timing of the test and to reach out to the public so they understand it's a test and not a real emergency, Fowlkes said.
"We want to make sure that it works the way it's designed to," Fowlkes said. "If there are things that work well, great. If there are things that don't work well, we can work with EAS participants and with state and local governments as well as our federal partners to correct or improve what doesn't work."
At the same time, said Fowlkes, the FCC is looking at how wireless broadband could also enhance the EAS as part of a recommendation that was in the FCC's National Broadband Plan from last year.
The idea is to leverage broadband and the Internet for emergency alerting with the "Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) being developed by FEMA and the wireless industry."
CMAS would allow three kinds of text messaging or wireless alert to be sent, said Fowlkes:
* Presidential Alerts - "Which would be the same as what the president might issue or FEMA might issue through the EAS system,
* Imminent Threat Alerts - Which Fowlkes said would warn when "there's a hurricane coming or a tornado coming," and then the
* Child Abduction Emergency/AMBER Alerts - Alerts related to missing or endangered children due to an abduction or runaway situation.
Fowlkes said the CMAS is slated to begin deployment in April 2012