The developers of Alert FM have gained more support in efforts to expand the use of their RDS-based alerting system.
Global Security Systems says the New Jersey and Missouri State Broadcasters Associations have joined those in three earlier states — Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee — in support of its personal alerting and messaging system, which uses the FM infrastructure.
Its system allows emergency managers to deliver alert messages to electronic devices that have FM receivers. GSS has been active in pushing for electronics manufacturers to expand the availability of FM on mobile and other devices.
The company quotes supportive comments from Paul Rotella, president and CEO of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association, and Don Hicks, who holds the same jobs for the Missouri Broadcasters Association.
Rotella stated that in emergencies, “FM radio’s single-point to multi-point transmission assures the delivery of critical information to an infinite number of FM-enabled devices simultaneously — a huge advantage over wireless broadband’s point-to-point system which overloads and jams in that scenario.”
GSS also reported that in March, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski replied to members of Congress who had written to him about the potential of having FM receivers on mobile phones for EAS purposes. He replied that cellular companies must develop a Commercial Mobile Alert System by 2012. “Incorporating FM receiver chips could help achieve this goal,” GSS stated.
GSS also recently added the communications services of Renee Cassis, who is familiar to many in the radio broadcast industry from past work at the Radio Advertising Bureau.
And at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, which opens this weekend, the company plans to operate Alert FM as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s exhibit of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS. FEMA will be in Booth C2052.
