FCC: EAS Test Will Help Refine Second-Language Alerts

When asked by reporters about reports from state Emergency Alert System (EAS) coordinators that some of the emergency alerts sent out during the recent national test of the EAS system did not go through in Spanish, Admiral David Simpson, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, said that illustrated the value of the test. The FCC was conducting the test in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with a focus on FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) that disseminates the alerts to the various participants. "That's exactly the kind of thing we wanted to test," Simpson told reporters following the test. "We believe this will give us the data necessary to refine the transmission of that second-language version of the same alert."

Asked whether he thought the test was more successful than one in 2011, Simpson said it was hard to compare given the work it took to achieve that first test. But he did say that the recent test had "built upon" that foundation. "We were in a better place to capture results, not just from broadcasters themselves but from disability rights organizations as well as communities in general." He said if it was better, it was only because the previous test had laid the table for them. Simpson said that over 22,000 stations had reported back with info on the test (as required), and the FCC was massaging the data along with FEMA, stakeholders and state commissions.