We're lucky in northern New York to have a superb, guns blazing public radio news operation based out of Canton NY - the local calls are WSLU but collectively (the station runs a fistful of translators) it goes by NCPR. That said, it's not enough. There are little radio stations all around the north country which used to have one and two person news departments but which have been slowly losing ground. One thing your excellent article doesn't mention: those small stations were the first step up the ladder - ie, they were the training ground for stations in small cities, which, in turn, supplied some of large city radio talent.
"A public station that loses CPB cannot afford to maintain the emergency alert equipment that makes its signal valuable to the county."
The EAS device requires virtually no maintenance once it is installed. Stations are further discouraged from performing any maintenance on the devices that would involve turning them off or moving them. As recent FCC enforcement has made clear, even disconnecting the device for one hour requires non-routine advance permission from the FCC.
The sole company still manufacturing EAS devices recently announced a software upgrade. But the upgrade is optional and its features are of no benefit to many stations. I believe thousands of stations are very likely unaware of the upgrade. The manufacturer does not have a practice of contacting customers to offer the upgrade.
"The AM preservation fight is not a journalism fix. It keeps receivers in vehicles so that whatever local signal survives still has a way to reach a driver in a wildfire evacuation or a tornado warning."
There is no evidence that most or even many radio stations, AM or FM, broadcast emergency alerts including evacuations or tornado warnings. Neither FEMA nor FCC collect such evidence. Even the FCC's mandatory EAS Test Reporting System requests no such data from any broadcast station.
The sole required regular EAS activities are the Required Monthly Tests, the National Periodic Test every three years; and the Required Weekly Tests which despite the name are not required to be broadcast.
None of those are broadcast of actual emergency messages to the public, nor does anything require local and state emergency managers to utilize EAS.
While all radio and TV stations are required to broadcast the National Emergency Message (code EAN), no such message has ever been sent.
The National Public Warning System (NPWS) is part of EAS and is based mostly on AM stations, but the NPWS has never been activated.
"When a station goes dark, the local EAS node often goes with it, because the alert runs through the station’s transmitter and engineering staff. FEMA and the National Emergency Management Association have a direct interest in funding redundancy: cooperative alert nodes, satellite backup, or federally leased tower space. That work shouldn’t wait on the next wildfire."
FEMA did fund station upgrades to EAS capability in a series of grants, but the grants went only to PBS and NPR member stations, not commercial stations or LPFM stations. After defunding CPB which was FEMA's contractor for issuing the grants, the second Trump administration made broadcast stations ineligible to apply for the funds.
We're lucky in northern New York to have a superb, guns blazing public radio news operation based out of Canton NY - the local calls are WSLU but collectively (the station runs a fistful of translators) it goes by NCPR. That said, it's not enough. There are little radio stations all around the north country which used to have one and two person news departments but which have been slowly losing ground. One thing your excellent article doesn't mention: those small stations were the first step up the ladder - ie, they were the training ground for stations in small cities, which, in turn, supplied some of large city radio talent.
"A public station that loses CPB cannot afford to maintain the emergency alert equipment that makes its signal valuable to the county."
The EAS device requires virtually no maintenance once it is installed. Stations are further discouraged from performing any maintenance on the devices that would involve turning them off or moving them. As recent FCC enforcement has made clear, even disconnecting the device for one hour requires non-routine advance permission from the FCC.
The sole company still manufacturing EAS devices recently announced a software upgrade. But the upgrade is optional and its features are of no benefit to many stations. I believe thousands of stations are very likely unaware of the upgrade. The manufacturer does not have a practice of contacting customers to offer the upgrade.
"The AM preservation fight is not a journalism fix. It keeps receivers in vehicles so that whatever local signal survives still has a way to reach a driver in a wildfire evacuation or a tornado warning."
There is no evidence that most or even many radio stations, AM or FM, broadcast emergency alerts including evacuations or tornado warnings. Neither FEMA nor FCC collect such evidence. Even the FCC's mandatory EAS Test Reporting System requests no such data from any broadcast station.
The sole required regular EAS activities are the Required Monthly Tests, the National Periodic Test every three years; and the Required Weekly Tests which despite the name are not required to be broadcast.
None of those are broadcast of actual emergency messages to the public, nor does anything require local and state emergency managers to utilize EAS.
While all radio and TV stations are required to broadcast the National Emergency Message (code EAN), no such message has ever been sent.
The National Public Warning System (NPWS) is part of EAS and is based mostly on AM stations, but the NPWS has never been activated.
"When a station goes dark, the local EAS node often goes with it, because the alert runs through the station’s transmitter and engineering staff. FEMA and the National Emergency Management Association have a direct interest in funding redundancy: cooperative alert nodes, satellite backup, or federally leased tower space. That work shouldn’t wait on the next wildfire."
FEMA did fund station upgrades to EAS capability in a series of grants, but the grants went only to PBS and NPR member stations, not commercial stations or LPFM stations. After defunding CPB which was FEMA's contractor for issuing the grants, the second Trump administration made broadcast stations ineligible to apply for the funds.