Deadlines have been set to file comments in the latest NPRM from the Federal Communications Commission concerning emergency alerting.
As we’ve reported, the commission has a notice of proposed rulemaking that it says would improve the clarity and accessibility of visual Emergency Alert System messages to the public, particularly to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. In a companion NOI, the commission asks questions about broader measures to enhance the Emergency Alert System’s overall functionality and accessibility.
The NPRM presents proposals for modifying the text associated with national EAS messages, including pre-stored templates for NPT messages, and it proposes requiring “triggered” CAP polling.
The NOI asks, among many other questions, whether it would make sense to use legacy EAS only for the Emergency Action Notification (EAN) and NPT, but require use of CAP for all other alerts, and if legacy EAS can’t be reasonably modified to allow alert originators to distribute text to transcribe a two-minute audio message, whether the legacy EAS architecture should be redesigned altogether.
You can read Radio World’s recent story about the NPRM and NOI.
Now the deadlines are set. Comments on the NPRM are due March 11, and replies are due March 28. Comments on the NOI are due April 11 and replies by May 10.
Read the full proposal at https://tinyurl.com/rw-eas-4. File comments to the FCC at www.fcc.gov/ecfs/. To read others, enter 15-94 in the “Specify Proceeding” field.
