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/ 10.12.2010 12:00AM
FCC’s CAP Deadline Raises Questions
WASHINGTON: Many issues remain
unsettled on the question of emergency alerting. So legal observers expect the
FCC soon to put out a notice of proposed rule making on the subject, given that
it hasn’t amended its rules to provide for Common Alerting Protocol-based
messaging--even though broadcasters and others are expected to comply with the
CAP standard by the end of March (as of now, at least).
Denise Branson, paralegal at the law firm Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth,
writes in the firm’s
newsletter: “As CAP is designed to cross all technical
boundaries, everyone from broadcasters to cellular phone operators to MVPD
providers should be on the lookout for a fast-tracked--in light of the ticking
clock--NPRM.”
Issues an NPRM might consider, Branson writes, include whether the FCC should
eliminate locally delivered test scripts for EAN (Emergency Action
Notification), EAS and the EAS Handbook; whether national activation with the
EOM code should be eliminated; whether to update broadcast EAS rules; who
should be responsible for translating alerts into multiple languages; whether a
nationwide training program should be instituted for crafting and implementing
EAS messages; and whether the “selective override” issue for cable operators
should be revisited.
“And an obvious practical question looming over all this will be whether the
180-day deadline should be extended to give affected players--including, but not
limited to, the FCC itself--a bit more time in which to get their act
together,” Branson writes, echoing a question
Radio World has heard from numerous broadcast engineers,
manufacturers and other alerting participants.
“It is far from clear, for example, that equipment manufacturers will be able
to (a) get their gear modified to conform to whatever new standards the FCC may
adopt, and then (b) get the FCC to bless the modified gear, and then (c) get it
out in the marketplace before the current deadline, now less than 180 days
away. And once that equipment is available in the market, broadcasters, MVPDs,
cellphone companies, etc., etc. will all have to buy and install it.”
She also noted that the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau took
comments in March about how the FCC’s EAS rules would have to be modified to
accommodate new CAP standards. “But since then, we have heard nothing from the
commission in the way of a formal proposal for amended rules to address the
conversion to a CAP system.”-- from
Radio
World
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Thursday 12:00AM
Broadcasters File Suit Against FCC’s Political File Rules
“The FCC decision to put the political files online will bring broadcasters into the 21st century, and will make already public information more easily accessible to everyone.” Free Press Senior Policy Counsel Corie Wright.