As the nation heads toward its next-generation Emergency Alert System, NAB and other groups have tried to reach a consensus on multilingual EAS and public warnings.
The subject will come up at a special session of the 4th Annual EAS Summit, held Monday, Feb. 25, during the 2008 NAB State Leadership Conference in Washington. NAB and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) hope to form a task force to pursue a process leading to an efficient and ubiquitous multilingual warning and information system.
NAB and MMTC invited Derek Poarch, chief of the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and his staff to attend the session.
Dialogue in multilingual EAS is ongoing among NAB, the United Church of Christ, MMTC, the Florida Association of Broadcasters and the Independent Spanish Broadcasters Association since the groups’ initial formal meeting on the matter in June, NAB told the FCC in a filing.
NAB and MMTC also said that the input of state broadcast association executives and local and state public safety officials “would be very valuable for generating additional ideas on our uniform goal of ensuring all Americans have access to emergency information.”
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