In September 2022, the FCC adopted a rule that would change the timing of EAS alerts for local stations. Currently, a station will receive them from both the traditional EAS daisy chain alerts and the IPAWS/CAP system. Current EAS radios accept and rebroadcast the first message they receive.
Under new rules, EAS receivers at local stations that first receive an EAS alert through the EAS daisy chain would be required to delay retransmitting the EAS alert for at least 10 seconds. During the delay, the EAS receiver would look to see if it received a message from the IPAWS/CAP system and give that message priority over the alert from the traditional EAS message. If no IPAWS/CAP message is received, the alert obtained through the traditional EAS system would then be retransmitted by the station.
In asking for the delay, NAB noted that Sage, one of the major EAS encoder-decoder manufacturers, is unable to provide the necessary firmware update to their EAS equipment on time. SAGE equipment is used by many local broadcast stations. As a result, NAB has asked for a 90-day extension until March 11, 2024.
You can see NAB's request for a delay here.
You can see the FCC decision from last year here.
You can see a discussion of the issue by noted Communications Attorney David Oxenford here.
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