An Anchor's Reminder About the Importance of Broadcast Emergency Alerts

[Commentary] When it comes to emergency alerts, a broadcaster’s lot is not enviable. It is often difficult simply to marshal, in very short order, the important details and reduce them to reliable words and images that can be grasped quickly and accurately by the audience.

There are regulatory concerns: even the best-intentioned broadcaster doing his or her utmost to get the word out to the public can be unpleasantly whacked after the fact by the Federal Communications Commission for an inadvertent failure to comply 100% with certain regulatory requirements. And let’s not forget members of the audience, occasionally ungracious and unappreciative, who call to complain when emergency reports interrupt their favorite program.

In other words, broadcasters might have considerable reason not to jump at the opportunity to break into their programming with bad news about bad weather. Still, emergency alerts save lives and property. It is difficult to conceive of a public service of greater importance. And despite the difficulties and risks to their own operations, broadcasters have historically stepped up to the plate over and over again to serve their audiences in this valuable way.