NEW EAS RULES AND REQUIREMENTS: THIS IS NOT A TEST

Placing increasing emphasis on national EAS and IPAWS alerts, the FCC has issued new requirements for EAS participants and is proposing others. The material herein incorporates what the FCC has already passed into law and what the FCC is expected to pass into law shortly.

These requirements are “unfunded” mandates. Stations will have to pay the costs for compliance.

In a nutshell — By December 12, 2023

Stations must have equipment in place so that if an emergency alert arrives via both over-the-air EAS monitoring AND via IPAWS/CAP alert, the station will carry the IPAWS/CAP version instead of the EAS version for any national alert originator code, national test code, and national emergency code with “plain text versions.” Some in industry have called this the “no more jargon rule.” Interestingly, this “run the IPAWS version” doesn’t apply for EAN, NPT, and RWT messages which don’t require a CAP version. Since Required Weekly Tests are not forwarded, there would be no IPAWS/CAP version to be forwarded. In the case of EAN, it appears that Washington thinks the 10 minute delay wouldn’t be a good idea (if a missile’s coming, don’t wait! And the National Periodic Test is designed to test everything, so seeing if the over-the-air version works properly is part of the test.

In addition, EAS Participants are now required to speak/display a standard script for NPT alerts issued in legacy (the current over-the-air commonly used) format. This means if a station gets the “legacy” version of the test, the FCC approved standard script should be substituted for the “legacy” version’s message. It is expected that stations’ new or updated EAS equipment will automatically make this substitution.

How will stations “wait to see if there will be an IPAWS CAP version of any test or alert it gets from an over-the-air source? New EAS equipment will be set up to automatically wait 10 seconds or longer and make this test for you automatically. In the case of any EAS alert other than national alerts, as in the past, carriage of these non-national EAS alerts are completely up to the discretion of station management. Required Monthly Tests must, of course, still be carried by all stations.

Addressing what has been a problem in some areas (including parts of New Mexico) the new equipment you’ll need to purchase will have text-to-speech conversion built-in, so if you get an IPAWS or EAS alert with no spoken voice message in it, your new equipment will automatically create speech from the digital text.

Incidentally, the FCC continues its policy that stations can NOT opt out of participating in the EAS system. Many years ago stations could elect “Non-Participating” EAS status. Only one New Mexico station did so, as best I can remember. All stations are now “Participating” per FCC rules.

Under this rule, the FCC has revised the names of some alerts. EAN now means “National Emergency Message.” PEP now means “United States Government.” NPT now means “Nationwide Test Of The Emergency Alert System.” Updates to or replacement of your EAS equipment should automatically update these names/definitions.

Stations must have good, robust cyber-security around their EAS units so that false or fake EAS alerts cannot be sent or can at least be reduced to an absolute minimum. Once each year stations will have to report to the FCC how they keep EAS units safe from hackers, and if a false or fake EAS alert is issued by a station, that station must report the incident to the FCC within 24 hours. If someone hacks into your EAS equipment but does NOT send a false or fake EAS alert, that intrusion must be reported to the FCC within 72 hours.

What will it cost for stations to comply?

Compliance costs will vary widely from station to station depending on the age, make, and model of your current EAS equipment. Some EAS equipment is expected to be made compliant with a software and/or firmware upgrade. Prices for these upgrades vary widely – some stations have “continuous upgrade contracts” with their EAS equipment suppliers which will likely cover the cost of upgrading. Most stations will have to pay for upgrades in software and/or firmware to stay compliant. Some EAS units will have to be replaced entirely. Check with your EAS equipment manufacturer to learn what your situation is, and what becoming compliant will cost you.

If your current EAS equipment fails and is taken out of service, as of this writing you have 60 days before you must notify the FCC of the out-of-service condition. Expect the FCC to soon shorten that reporting window.

Caveats –

Remember, we’re in a chip shortage. This can be a problem for stations that don’t act quickly. Also, since some units cannot be sufficiently upgraded, replacing them is likely to cause both an equipment shortage and exacerbate the chip shortage since the new equipment will need new chips! The FCC has not indicated if it’ll extend the compliance deadline if equipment is unavailable.

What the FCC did NOT do.

The FCC has been mulling requiring foreign language EAS content, but this recent rule update does NOT mandate foreign language alerts or tests.

It’s time to get out your checkbook!!

And as always, please remember, I am not an attorney, and nothing contained herein is to be construed as legal advice!