FCC Sought More Data from EAS CAP Waiver Seekers

A few dozen EAS participants in late spring and early summer sought exemption from an FCC requirement that became effective June 30 for the new Common Alerting Protocol EAS message format, docket 04-296 shows (http://xrl.us/bno7na). CAP, unlike traditional EAS using the so-called broadcast daisy chain for government agencies to send alerts, uses a website for the government to distribute warning messages to all multichannel video programming distributors, radio and TV stations and satellite radio. Those MVPD and broadcast outlets then pass the warnings on to viewers and listeners. CAP is designed to expand transmission of emergency alerts to other platforms and devices, such as websites and cellphones (CD June 13 p5). Most EAS alerts continue using the traditional daisy-chain system, as shown in the Gulf Coast states during Hurricane Isaac last month, a story later this week in Communications Daily will report.

The bureau sent letters to waiver requesters in recent months asking for more detail about the efforts the companies made to obtain broadband service, industry officials told us. “The gist of their questions seemed to try to determine if the broadcaster made a good-faith effort to get broadband before the deadline,” said broadcast lawyer Howard Liberman of Drinker Biddle. He filed Townsquare Media’s (http://xrl.us/bno7i7) waiver request. The radio broadcaster needed to install a microwave relay system to deliver broadband to its WDLA (AM/FM) Walton, N.Y., which can only get dial-up ISP access, the filing said. The company asked for a delay until installation, which Liberman said is occurring and will put the station in compliance. The bureau letter asked for a reply to questions in 30 days, Liberman said. A bureau spokeswoman had no comment for this story.

The owner of two small Alaska radio stations delayed initiating broadcasting at a newly acquired third station in the state after the bureau denied his waiver request. Kenai Broadcasting owner Charles Dunham said the bureau denied the waiver request (http://xrl.us/bnbvn5) for his low-power FM station KKNI Sterling and suggested he acquire broadband through satellite or other wireless delivery services. Dunham said that instead of subscribing to satellite broadband delivery -- which he said was expensive and unreliable -- he installed a makeshift broadband relay system using microwave dishes and unlicensed radios that he said gives the remote LPFM station access to the CAP alerts.

Townsquare used microwave technology to connect its rural station after neither Time Warner Cable nor the local ILEC could connect it to broadband, Lieberman said. Townsquare agreed to pay costs nearing $15,000 in one case to connect the station, but the ISPs were still unable to perform the installation, he said, forcing Townsquare to improvise a microwave link to connect the station. Dunham said the $2,000 in microwave equipment costs were a better option than satellite broadband service, which he thought was too unreliable for the service rates. The Western Oregon Radio Club also found a wireless solution to connect its rural LPFM station to broadband, said broadcast lawyer Peter Tannenwald of Fletcher Heald, who sought the waiver (http://xrl.us/bno7mj). The price “couldn’t be much” due to the club’s limited budget, he said.

CAP compliance can be prohibitively expensive for some small cable operators that serve a few hundred houses, said cable lawyer James Moskowitz of Cinnamon Mueller. He filed CAP EAS waivers for clients including New Wave Communications, which (http://xrl.us/bndpjf) requested a six-month extension for 18 small cable systems that lacked broadband access. New Wave and other small operators believe compliance can be expensive for operators of small systems lacking substantial budgets for technological upgrades, Moskowitz said. “In many cases, these providers see themselves more as providing a community service. They're not making money,” he said. “This comes out of their pocket."

West River Cable, with systems including four serving rural South Dakota communities and two Indian reservations outside of the local telco’s broadband service area, said it would have to shut the systems down if forced to comply, noting they're already unprofitable. Equipment for each system would cost $5,150.00, plus installation and other charges, the waiver request said (http://xrl.us/bno7mw). In a hand-written filing, Southern Cayuga County CableVision owner Ray Dyer included documentation of the $8,400 second mortgage on his residence he said he obtained to pay for the CAP equipment to bring the Locke, N.Y., system into compliance. Dyer asked for an extension due to a back order of CAP equipment just before the FCC’s deadline (http://xrl.us/bno7my), an issue raised in several waiver filings.

Delivering broadband to rural systems isn’t just an issue for small operators. Comcast and Charter Communications also asked in June for extensions while they work to connect several rural systems. Charter told the FCC it was exploring satellite and DSL for some of the 32 locations that lacked broadband (http://xrl.us/bno7na). For Kenesaw, Neb., the company was researching a fiber connection that will take seven months to construct at a cost of $165,000. Comcast was building out a satellite delivery system for its remote systems at “substantial ‘per subscriber’ implementation costs,” the operator said (http://xrl.us/bncgdp). Charter and Comcast had no comment for this story. The American Cable Association asked the FCC to establish a standard waiver procedure for small operators that didn’t have broadband access, instead of evaluating them on a case-by-case basis (CD Jan 12 p8). After the bureau didn’t act, the ACA withdrew the petition.