Media Security Committee Gets Started

The new federal advisory committee charged with giving the FCC advice on how to keep broadcasters on the air in the event of further terrorist attacks or natural disasters met for the first time Friday and decided to keep its mission simple.
“If the media is going to be able to do its job, we need to make sure the infrastructure can work,” committee chair Dennis FitzSimons, President/COO Tribune Co. said. He said the main point of the Media Security and Reliability Council is to learn from 9/11 and figure out what can be improved.
The group formed subgroups to look at security measures for station towers and studios and another group to study communications to the public.
“Shame on us if we don’t learn …from 9/11,” said FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
Several TV broadcasters from NYC said if they learned anything from that day it was that they need redundant systems in a separate location from their main studios.
The group will also look at how to improve EAS. McHenry Tichenor, Jr., President/CEO Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., said “EAS is broken, and this is an opportunity to fix it,” referring to what he said is often a lack of communication between stations and local emergency personnel.
The next meeting is planned for November.