THE POWER OF FREE, OVER-THE-AIR TELEVISION AND RADIO

Last week's earthquake in the Washington, D.C. area -- coupled with Hurricane Irene's march up the East Coast over the weekend, has re-ignited a debate on the value of free, over-the-air broadcasting's "one-to-everyone" signal versus the "one-to-one" architecture of the cell phone network.

Nevada's message to Congress and the FCC could not be more straightforward and simple:  Cell phone networks will clog again, just as they did after last week's earthquake and this past week-end's hurricane.  The result will be leaving millions of callers stranded without a signal. Yet the broadcast signal up and down the East Coast was robust and reliable, providing lifeline service that local TV and radio listeners have come to expect from broadcasters.

So how will the cell phone industry will respond now?  Predictable, using their massive system failure as a call for more broadcast spectrum.

The fundamental flaw in their argument is this: that in an emergency situation when tens of thousands of people are trying to call simultaneously, the cell phone network as it is currently designed is destined to fail. As constructed now, all the spectrum on the planet won't prevent cell phone network disruptions in a crisis situation.

What follows are quotes from the Federal Emergency Management Association Administrator Craig Fugate. Mr. Fugate leaves little doubt that the government's top official charged with protecting lives of Americans during emergencies still believes in the importance of local broadcasting.

"A lot of people look to FEMA for the answers. These answers - about what impacts you could have - and what you need to do in your communities - are going to come from your local officials. And that's why it's really important with your local broadcasters - that they are going to have, often times, the most detailed information about what's happening in your community"  (CNN)

"You know were going to go back to what I think people that got so enamored with their smart phones forget, that it's your local TV and radio stations. Those local broadcasters are going to be giving you the best information, real time, from those local officials out of those press conferences. So make sure you got your television and radio … and again cell phones get congested, but we did have some success with people text messaging or using social media … but remember cell phones themselves in heavy congestion may not be able to get through. And stay off the phones if it is not an emergency, because other people may be trying to call 911. Use text messaging, use land lines, but again local TV and radio are going to probably be one of the best sources of information from those local officials during the crunch time of evacuation."  (CNN)

 
MEETING OF THE EAS SECC

The annual meeting of the Nevada State Emergency Communications Committee was called to order at 10:05 AM on Sunday August 21, in the Veranda D room of the Red Rock Hotel Convention Center. Those present included FCC-appointed Chair Adrienne Abbott; Vice-Chairs Steve Scott of Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Bill Croghan of Lotus Broadcasting. Also present were Robert Fisher, President and CEO of the Nevada Broadcasters Association; Adam Sandler, Vice President of the Nevada Broadcasters Association; Ray Fodge of Beasley Broadcast Group and current president of the Las Vegas Chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers; Lamar Smith, Chief Engineer for newly designated Primary Entry Point station KDWN; Paul Gardner, owner of Elko Broadcasting and KELK, the Local Primary 2 station for the Elko area; Larry Fuss, owner of South Seas Broadcasting, our invited guest speaker; Joe Sands, owner of Desert Sands Broadcast Engineering whose clients include both the Las Vegas Local Primary 2 station, KNPR and KDWN, the new Primary Entry Point station; George Molnar, Vice President, Vegas PBS; Barry Garrett, Chief Engineer, KTUD; Heng Choong, Headend Technician, Cox Cable; Irene Navis, Clark County Emergency Management; and Carolyn Levering, Las Vegas Emergency Manager. Dan Mason, Program Director of KKOH, the Local Primary 1 station and Primary Entry Point station for the Reno area arrived shortly after the meeting began due to his flight from Reno.

The minutes of the 2010 meeting were distributed and the meeting began with a buffet breakfast, provided by the Nevada Broadcasters Association. Over breakfast, Larry Fuss described the events surrounding the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that shook American Samoa on Sept. 29th, 2009 and the decision by KKHJ-FM General Manager Joey Cummings to issue an EAS activation for a tsunami warning when local emergency officials failed to take action following the earthquake. KKHJ-FM is the Local Primary station for Pago Pago so the warning was picked up by other stations on the island, including a religious station operated by a church in a remote village. After receiving the activation, the minister rang the church bells and the villagers ran to higher ground, and out of the path of the tsunami that destroyed their homes. While no one in that village was killed, ultimately, 119 people died as a result of the tidal wave that was more than 40 feet high when it swept over the archipelago. Larry talked about the inadequate response from emergency officials and the extent of damage around the island, including his station. He told us how the station managed to stay on the air and continue broadcasting in the aftermath of the tragedy. Adrienne thanked him for his story and recommended that everyone keep the lessons learned from Pago Pago in mind as the committee rewrites the Nevada EAS Plan. 

Adrienne then asked Dan Mason to discuss the non-weather EAS activations that had been issued this year by KKOH. Dan described the AMBER Alerts issued early in the year as well as two activations for major telephone outages that were issued late in 2010. He noted that there were few problems but that the biggest obstacle was still a lack of understanding and training on the part of emergency officials. George Molnar asked about the numerous recent weather-related activations. Adrienne advised that the National Weather Service has strict criteria for activations and those criteria often lead to repeat activations as storm systems move through an area.  Dan and Barry Garrett both commented on the number of apparent repeat activations for remote, unpopulated areas and Adrienne noted that stations can program their EAS equipment to filter out activations for areas they don't serve.

Adrienne also noted that the upcoming addition of CAP or Common Alerting Protocol to EAS will eliminate some of the current problems. She noted that a recent survey of stations showed that most radio stations were adding Sage equipment while TV stations were adding DASDEC equipment. She added that the state Division of Emergency Management had indicated a willingness to take on a more active role in EAS by acquiring a CAP server that would be made available to city and county public safety officials. Irene Navis and Carolyn Levering expressed concern about the speed at which the state was acting and raised questions about possible time limits on the grant funds that would be used to acquire the CAP equipment.

Along with the addition of new CAP equipment, Adrienne noted that the FCC had finished the comment and reply period on the revisions to the Part 11 rules that govern EAS. While the revised Part 11 hasn't been published yet, Adrienne told the group that it was time to start the process of rewriting the Nevada EAS plan. She distributed an outline of the process to re-write the plan and asked everyone to go through it and add their own comments and suggestions. She added that the process would include meetings on line through the NBA's "GoToMeeting" subscription.

Adrienne discussed the upcoming National EAS Test and distributed an FCC News Release on the test. She noted that it would not involve CAP and the new EAS equipment, but was designed for the "legacy" EAS equipment to establish a baseline of whether the system that had been in place for more than 50 years could do what it was designed to do. In addition, she said that stations would be required to "self-report" the results of the test back to the FCC. With that in mind, she announced that FEMA had completed connections on KDWN to make them the PEP station for Las Vegas and unserved areas of the southwest. She added that Manny Centeno of the FEMA IPAWS office would conduct a "mini-National EAS Test" in Nevada, on a date in September that would be announced when Manny returned from Puerto Rico. The test would be launched from FEMA to KKOH in Reno and KDWN in Las Vegas and propagate from there to other stations in the Nevada EAS Operational Area. She would track some of the results through a conference call with station engineers and report the results to the NBA. Irene asked for a copy of the News Release to share with other emergency managers at an upcoming state conference. Carolyn recommended that Adrienne contact Michelle Candee at DEM to make a presentation on CAP and the National Test at the state conference.

Adrienne brought up the subject of a Western States EAS Summit at next year's NAB. While successful, the national EAS Summits which had been sponsored by the National Alliance of State Broadcaster Associations and the National Association of Broadcasters had been discontinued in favor of a series of Internet webinars due mainly to financial concerns. Bob Fisher noted that the first time all the players involved in EAS had ever been in a room together occurred at the first National EAS summits and that significant progress had been made in the field of Public Warning as a result. He explained that it would easy for the NBA to request assistance from NASBA and NAB in setting up a conference. Irene and Carolyn commented that most emergencies in Nevada involved either California or Arizona so the idea of a regional conference with an emphasis on Public Warning appealed to them. Everyone agreed that there was value in conducting another Western States EAS Summit and that we should proceed.

With the goals for 2012 set at rewriting the state plan and holding another Western States EAS Summit, no one had any further suggestions and the meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:20 PM.
(submitted  by Adrienne Abbott)
 
SBE ELECTS NEW BOARD, CHOOSES SNELSON AS VP

The Society of Broadcast Engineers on Friday announced the results of the 2011 election for the national board of directors.  Joe Snelson, CPBE, 8-VSB, vice president of engineering at Meredith Corporation in Las Vegas was elected Vice-President.

Joe has been actively involved in television broadcasting for over 40 years. His career began even before graduating with honors from Los Angeles City College with an Associate in Arts degree in Broadcasting Technology. For a year he was an interim electronics technician for the broadcasting department maintaining equipment.

In 1971, Joe joined the staff of KHOF-TV in the Los Angeles area where he advanced to the position of Assistant Chief Engineer. In 1977 Joe moved to Kansas City as the first Chief Engineer for KYFC-TV where he was responsible for the construction of the studio/transmitter facilities and signed the station on the air. Three years later Joe joined KCTV, formerly KCMO-TV, owned by Meredith Corporation. Meredith owns twelve television stations in various top 100 markets across the country and an AM radio station. For over fifteen years Joe was the Director of Engineering at KCTV with split corporate engineering responsibilities for Meredith's group of stations.

Joe is currently Vice President of Engineering for the Meredith Local Media Group. He has been a member of the Maximum Service Television (MSTV) Engineering Committee and actively participated as a member of the technical committee for the model digital television station (WHD-DT) in Washington, DC during the birth of digital broadcast television in the United States.  Congratulations to Meredith Corporation and to Joe.