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DFW EAS: FAIL

J

JRZFM100

Okay, here is what I noticed:

DFW LP-1 WBAP has one minute of silence (actually a low hum); No aural information broadcast.

Also, scrolled thru over the air TV and noted that some stations (13, 68, 2 for example) either dumped out of the test early or never activated. 4 - 8 - 11 were still broadcasting EAS test info, while the others mentioned had none.

Anybody in DFW see anything else?
 
JRZFM100 said:
Okay, here is what I noticed:

DFW LP-1 WBAP has one minute of silence (actually a low hum); No aural information broadcast.

Also, scrolled thru over the air TV and noted that some stations (13, 68, 2 for example) either dumped out of the test early or never activated. 4 - 8 - 11 were still broadcasting EAS test info, while the others mentioned had none.

Anybody in DFW see anything else?
Click to expand...

No
 
Not to be too critical, but on the 1:00 pm newscast on WBAP, following execution of the failed test, the news guy said something like we're not sure if the silence was correct - uncertain as to what to expect.

I don't assign blame, but for an LP-1 station, wouldn't one assume that programming, ops, engineering and news all be informed as to what to expect? Especially with the test falling in the beginning of a news cast?

Here's a portion of the FCC release on the test:

The test will include transmission by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) of a “live” Emergency Action Notification (EAN) code to all EAS Participants and
notice to the general public that the EAS has been activated for a national emergency, along with an audible notice that “this is a test.”

and the complete FCC Release is here-

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0823/DA-11-1444A1.pdf

Let's give 'BAP credit, they did discover and announce that the test was a failure vis-a-vis the lack of audio information.... mentioned this on the 2:00 pm news cast.

Still... I would have printed and distributed the FCC Release...
 
JRZFM100 said:
Not to be too critical, but on the 1:00 pm newscast on WBAP, following execution of the failed test, the news guy said something like we're not sure if the silence was correct - uncertain as to what to expect.

I don't assign blame, but for an LP-1 station, wouldn't one assume that programming, ops, engineering and news all be informed as to what to expect? Especially with the test falling in the beginning of a news cast?

Here's a portion of the FCC release on the test:

The test will include transmission by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) of a “live” Emergency Action Notification (EAN) code to all EAS Participants and
notice to the general public that the EAS has been activated for a national emergency, along with an audible notice that “this is a test.”

and the complete FCC Release is here-

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0823/DA-11-1444A1.pdf

Let's give 'BAP credit, they did discover and announce that the test was a failure vis-a-vis the lack of audio information.... mentioned this on the 2:00 pm news cast.

Still... I would have printed and distributed the FCC Release...
Click to expand...

What a waste of taxpayers money
 
As the PD for WBAP...allow me to clarify:

1- All staff had been fully briefed. Background information was provided to studio and on-air personnel, and a handbook summarizing the planned procedure was with the studio operator. Meetings were held, staff was ready.
2 - Programming management and engineering staffs were fully in place throughout the test, both at the studio and at the transmitter site where the control point for Primary Entry Point resides. WBAP is one of the PEP stations across the country.
3 - Once EAS tones are fired from Washington, our studio facilities are shut off from the audio chain. Therefore, we were unable to come on-air to comment, provide information or fill the silence.

It is our understanding that the audio message DID get to other PEP stations across the country. Immediately after the test, a FEMA representative acknowledged that WBAP did not receive audio. And if WBAP did not receive audio, other stations monitoring WBAP for EAS activations also received no audio.

So did the system fail? You could argue that it did. But then, that's why you run tests....to find failure points BEFORE it has to (hopefully never) be put into place.

Tyler Cox
Program Manager
WBAP NewsTalk 820AM / 96.7FM
TalkRadio 570 KLIF
 
As an owner/operator of a radio station, I find it totally unacceptable that so much time effort, and certainly money was spent on this test and it clearly FAILED.

Tyler is right, thank God it was only a test....had this been an actual emergency - we might be VERY compromised.

I don't know who is in charge of this at the top level, but they should have some explaining to do!

If the FCC (Federal Government) is going to require stations the mounds of paperwork logging tests, conducting tests on our own, maintaining this equipment (not cheap) and be subject to unannounced inspection by the FCC to ensure all of the above is within their guidelines, the LEAST the Government could do is have their act together on THEIR end!

A friend of mine may have said it best - if they want to get a message to the country, maybe they'd be better off taking over Facebook and Twitter!
 
On WBAP 820 AM & 96.7 FM, while the SAME header/tail codes & attention signal were timed right, all I heard was a faint Spanish broadcast as the message. I sense a DO-OVER!!!!
 
Be realistic, folks, this was the FIRST national test in 50 years of the program...and you expect 4000+ outlets to all have the equipment for something that gets short shrift all 100% functional? We will learn a lot from this test, fix the stuff that needs fixing and then we will be ready if really needed...this was not a waste of time or money...
 
Tyler:

Thank you for your post concerning EAS failure.

Before WPLJ changed from AOR to CHR (Pre 1983), Pat St John was playing a motorcycle spot with a script which said "It's the meanest, toughest bike ever... take the test" and the cart jammed on the air. Pat St John opens the mic and says "I guess the test failed!". So I was expecting something like that to follow the EAS test. It's just too weird.

Actually I was looking back and forth at the radio and the TV just in shock and disbelief at the scope of the failure. Some TV's didn't activate at all, and everybody was mute.

Glad it wasn't 3 minutes of dead air!

No disrespect to you or your staff, (and I did intentionally avoid injecting sarcasm in my original post about your new owner, "the cloud")

I guess we were all dumbfounded when the test failed!

Warm regards.
 
Tyler Cox said:
As the PD for WBAP...allow me to clarify:
Click to expand...

Tyler, hope you noted that the COL part of the WBAP-FM legal ID was cut off by the
first set of duck farts.

Just log it as "Feds took over the station and interrupted the legal ID. It's their fault!" ;D
 
Someone at KMAD didn't get the message, they were the only station on my presets that wasn't off the air.
 
This was sent from the TAB this afternoon ---

Notice to Texas Broadcast Stations:



Many Texas stations received beginning and end tones of today’s National EAS Test. However, there was no audio in between the tones.



Stations monitoring WBAP Dallas/Fort Worth received no audio, but those monitoring KTRH Houston and KLBJ Austin received audio.



WBAP AM radio, one of Texas’ four primary entry point stations, reported there was no audio accompanying the broadcast it received from Washington. The station received a header and ending tones but no spoken words.



Brett Blankenship, Chief Engineer at WBAP, said there was some background noise but nothing else during the 30-second transmission.



Because many stations across Texas rely on the feed of the EAS test originated by WBAP, stations as far as the Lower Rio Grande Valley, reported they got the test with no audio.



Many stations reported the test came 30 seconds to several minutes late.



Those stations monitoring the test originated by KTRH report that the audio received was so poor that the statement was unintelligible.



The Texas Association of Broadcasters also received reports of some EAS equipment that failed entirely. In some cases, EAS units passed through multiple versions of the same test that had been received, rather than passing through just the original test.



From what we have heard, the problem of no audio, or bad audio occurred across the country.
 
Scanning the dial, KKXT 91.7 was playing music and never broadcast the test (unless it did after 1:05 when I turned off the car returning from lunch), though sister KERA-FM 90.1 did and every other station I happened to scan by.
 
To me it is unsettling that the government can "take over" local transmitters for any reason. We made it many years through many emergencies with out Washington clowns being able to do this. It sounds to me like something done in Cuba, Venezuela, etc..
 
Here's my 2 cents:

FEMA (or whoever in DC pushed the "big red button") SHOULD have sent a NPT - National Periodic Test, NOT an EAN. Since clearly, this was a test.

They ALSO should have coded the FIPS code to 00000 or "ALL US" instead of the one FIPS code for Washington DC. In theory, if there's an EAS activation needed for DC, it SHOULDN'T be relayed all over the country, as the emergency (most likely) only pertains to the DC area.

Most TV stations had some form of slate ready to roll at 1pm. We got the test from WBAP at 1:00pm, BUT, the "emergency" we got was slated to be sent (forwarded) at 1:03pm. This means it wasn't "live" so to speak... our DASDEC (brand of EAS box) simply did what it was told. It received the message, and waited till it's clock said 1:03, then it sent the message. Most of Texas had little to no intelligible audio between the "duck farts". I understand that Kentucky had decent audio, and also heard rumors that DirectTV subscribers had Lady Gaga music (??) playing in between their SOM and EOM. How that happened I have no idea.

All in all, the test was an UBER FAILURE. But none of that was WBAP's fault. It was farther up the daisy chain from anyone here in NTX.
 
Bottom line:
If this had been an actual emergency and the President wished to address the nation live on all radio and television stations in America on this day....it would not have happened because technically it did not work in all places.

A lot of time and money is spent by the Government and individual station owners to ensure this can be accomplished and the Government failed this test.
 
JRZFM100 said:
Not to be too critical, but on the 1:00 pm newscast on WBAP, following execution of the failed test, the news guy said something like we're not sure if the silence was correct - uncertain as to what to expect.

I don't assign blame, but for an LP-1 station, wouldn't one assume that programming, ops, engineering and news all be informed as to what to expect? Especially with the test falling in the beginning of a news cast?

Here's a portion of the FCC release on the test:

The test will include transmission by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) of a “live” Emergency Action Notification (EAN) code to all EAS Participants and
notice to the general public that the EAS has been activated for a national emergency, along with an audible notice that “this is a test.”

and the complete FCC Release is here-

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0823/DA-11-1444A1.pdf

Let's give 'BAP credit, they did discover and announce that the test was a failure vis-a-vis the lack of audio information.... mentioned this on the 2:00 pm news cast.

Still... I would have printed and distributed the FCC Release...
Click to expand...

Well I was on the air at the time of the test and I said no such thing on the air. In fact, all I said was that we had conducted the EAS along with other radio and TV stations and then immediately tried to fire local EAS tones but could not because the FEMA box at the transmitter had our studio EAS box locked out. After conclusion of the test I immediately went to traffic and weather before transitioning us back into Limbaugh.

I don't know what you thought you heard me say, but that's completely inaccurate. By the way, we first mentioned the EAS snafu in the 1:20 tease and did a story on it at 1:30p.

As for preparation for the test and knowing what was SUPPOSED to happen, as Tyler stated earlier, we were ready. FEMA or somebody at the federal level screwed this pooch. Thanks.
 
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