The timing of the upcoming nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System suggests that the FCC may use it to assess how well the U.S. broadcast community is complying with new cybersecurity rules.
As we’ve reported, the FCC last week scheduled the nationwide test for Nov. 17.
That’s not long after the Sept. 29 deadline for EAS participants to comply with the new FCC rules that require stronger password practices, timely software updates and improved security controls.
EAS observers say the test timing adds more urgency to comply.
All EAS participants, including all radio stations in the U.S., will be required to submit required filings about how they performed using the FCC’s EAS Test Reporting System, or ETRS. The first report will be due within 48 hours of the test.
Also, prior to the test, EAS participants must submit their annual ETRS Form One for this year no later than Oct. 30. ETRS Forms Two and Three will become available in ETRS on Nov. 17, at the time of initiation of the 2026 nationwide test.
Communications attorney David Oxenford, writing on his Broadcast Law Blog, wrote that at some point, the FCC will start fining stations that do not participate in the test or that do not file the required ETRS forms in a timely manner.
“In recent months, as the FCC has rolled out these EAS security obligations, I have been asked how those obligations will be enforced. One way may be through these nationwide tests. Where an alert is not received by a station that has not updated its EAS equipment, that station could be found to be in violation of the new rules,” Oxenford wrote.
[Special Report: Cybersecurity Beyond the EAS Box]
Oxenford noted that the FCC highlighted concern about “software and firmware not being updated.” He said this is based on results from a previous nationwide test, in which a significant number of stations were found to be using outdated equipment, which may have interfered with their ability to receive the alert. (Read our coverage of the FCC assessment of that 2023 test.)
“Broadcasters need to be prepared for this test and take all of their reporting obligations seriously,” Oxenford wrote.
He pointed out a recent consent decree in which a Texas TV station agreed with the FCC to pay $27,000 after not participating in nationwide tests and filing incorrect ETRS information.
Separately, veteran engineer Geary Morrill, regional director of engineering at Connoisseur Media, writing to a Michigan EAS listserv group, also took note of the FCC’s language about “ensuring the EAS hardware has the most recent updates installed.”
“I would not be surprised if ETRS Form One asks users to indicate whether they had (the new) cybersecurity rules in place by the deadline,” Morrill wrote.
“The sudden test announcement shortly after the rule implementation deadline isn’t an afterthought.”
FEMA, in coordination with the FCC, will conduct the nationwide test at 2:20 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 17. It will be the first national periodic test since 2023. The test will be disseminated in English and Spanish using a Common Alerting Protocol message using the Nationwide Test of EAS (NPT) event code, according to the FCC’s notice.
