What Stations Need to Know about Blue Alerts
By Susan Ashworth
http://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/0002/what-stations-need-to-know-about-the-latest-blue-alert-deadline/341134
The countdown toward implementation of Blue Alerts has begun.
EAS device manufacturers now have 12 months to make it possible for Blue Alerts — characterized by the three-character BLU code — to be delivered over the nation’s Emergency Alert System. It was in December that the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report and Order that required EAS devices to have the capability to transmit the newly adopted Blue Alert code, which can be used by state and local authorities to notify the public of threats to law enforcement.
Now, with a notice filed in the Federal Register, the deadline is set for Jan. 18, 2019. (The wireless industry has a bit longer — 18 months — to ensure that a wireless alert can be delivered over the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert system.)
What do stations need to do to prepare? Radio World spoke to two manufacturers of EAS equipment — Monroe Electronics, maker of Digital Alert Systems EAS products, and Sage Alerting Systems — to ask their opinions on what’s ahead for the broadcast industry when it comes to Blue Alerts.
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