ACM Letter to the FCC Regarding EAS Test and PEG Centers
Last week, the Alliance filed the following letter with the FCC regarding the inclusion of public, educational and governmental channels in the EAS Test. Please see below for the letter filed.
ACM Headquarters
______________
November 16, 2011
The Honorable Julius Genachowski
Honorable Michael Copps
Honorable Robert McDowell
Honorable Mignon Clyburn
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554
RE: EAS TEST AND PEG CHANNELS, ED Docket No. 04-296
Dear Chairman Genachowski and Commissioners Copps, McDowell and Clyburn:
The Alliance for Community Media provides critical support services for community media centers and the public, educational and governmental (“PEG”) access channels they provide, and for the primarily volunteer staff that keep these critical local media centers in operation. We write to request that, as it examine the successes and challenges to the nation’s first nationwide emergency alert system (“EAS”) test, the Commission include an examination of whether viewers of PEG channels were provided with the alert. It is our understanding that many PEG channels could not participate in the EAS test because the operators of many cable systems on which PEG channels are carried – primarily large cable companies – could not or chose not to participate in the test. While PEG channels were ready to run the EAS test and many work closely with local and state emergency management personnel, many local communities were not served by the test. We have not been able to ascertain whether PEG viewers on systems that did participate in the test were provided with the alert.
The Alliance stands ready to assist the Commission as you move forward in this matter. It is vitally important to us that PEG viewers are afforded the same guarantee that they will be made aware of a national alert should they be viewing PEG programming at the time the EAS is triggered. This is a critical public safety matter that we and our members take seriously, and the Commission should, too.
Sincerely,
Sylvia Strobel, Esq.
Executive Director
CC by email:
Joel Gurin, Bureau Chief, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
James Arden Barnett, Jr., Bureau Chief, Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau