MISSING CHILDREN TV INTERRUPTIONS

[gregg75]

Ok the state of Georgia issued a statewide missing child alert tonight which
interrupted Miss America for about 2 minutes. Luckily it was near the end, but
not at the end. I changed to the Falcon's football playoff game and it was not
interrupted.

Both programs were live. Are sports programs exempt from these alerts? I'd
think if you're going to interrupt one program you might as well interrupt
them all.

 

[cowboybud]

My understanding is that an "Amber Alert" is basically treated the same as a weather bulletin, that all stations ran a crawl or broke into programming.

 

[gregg75]

Here in Georgia you get a crawl PLUS the audio of the program is interrupted
and an announcement is read.

 

[azumanga]

My understanding is that an "Amber Alert" is basically treated the same as a weather bulletin, that all stations ran a crawl or broke into programming.

Amber Alerts are delivered through the Emergency Alert System, meaning that, like the tests, they break into programming to issue the message.

That being said, there are some stations and cable systems that do not relay EAS messages for Amber Alerts -- the only mandatory use of EAS is for tests and national emergencies. This is why you see a break-in during Miss America but not football.

Here in Georgia you get a crawl PLUS the audio of the program is interrupted
and an announcement is read.

Which is generally how EAS works nationwide -- there's generally a text ticker or on-screen message, with audio of the alert played under. This is no doubt to make sure everyone got the message, including those who are blind or deaf.

 

[gregg75]

Well the interruption did say that it was MANDATORY. I'm thinking maybe the
football game station will get a warning or $100 fine or something like that, which
they'd rather do than interrupt the game.........how do you police something like that?

 

[MattParker]

Well the interruption did say that it was MANDATORY. I'm thinking maybe the
football game station will get a warning or $100 fine or something like that, which
they'd rather do than interrupt the game.........how do you police something like that?

I can picture 1st amendment lawyers racking up the billable hours with this one. Seems like a lot of issues are raised with the whole idea of some official pushing a button and forcing stations to carry his message.

Terrestrial TV stations with news departments should not carry these things live. The news department should make a judgement call and then do a picture-in-a-picture bulletin or crawl, if warranted and at an appropriate time. "Appropriate time" being the key word. Remember when some idiot at CBS interrupted the climax of the 10:00 program for some bulletin (nobody saw how it turned out) when local news was starting in less than five minutes (and they could have fed something at 11:01 that stations could put in the local news)?

 

[pab]

"Min? The TV just broke into Miss America to tell us a kid is missing! Check the basement, see if she's there!"

"Ah! Here she is, Henry! She was hiding under the sink! Call the police and let them know."

Amber Alerts on television are the least useful use of broadcast spectrum ever. At least on radio there's a chance someone is on the road and can be on the lookout, but if the kid is somewhere in your house when the Amber Alert goes off, the only meaning it can have is "they've noticed I've taken her and we'd better lay low."

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Well the interruption did say that it was MANDATORY. I'm thinking maybe the
football game station will get a warning or $100 fine or something like that, which
they'd rather do than interrupt the game.........how do you police something like that?

But I wonder--what if (and I hope and pray it doesn't happen in general) somewhere there's an Amber Alert issued right in the middle of the Super Bowl? How would that be handled by the local station airing the big game?

 

[Mainedude2007]

Amber Alerts are delivered through the Emergency Alert System, meaning that, like the tests, they break into programming to issue the message.

That being said, there are some stations and cable systems that do not relay EAS messages for Amber Alerts -- the only mandatory use of EAS is for tests and national emergencies. This is why you see a break-in during Miss America but not football.

I can't speak for TV but in radio you can delay the EAS from going off immediatly when the alert is sent so you can program around the alert without it breaking in to commercials or the middle of a song

 

[BRNout]

I've always thought that the Amber Alert law was -typical of a lot of legislation lately - poorly thought-through overkill. In theory, the concept is well-intended. But, in practice, it affects more platforms than it should. And how about the way in which the EAS is misused to facilitate this? By using EAS alert tones too frequently, this tends to dilute the importance of such alerts to the extent that they may be ignored by some as a nuisance when there IS an actual emergency. A missing child is not an emergency for the public at large in the manner in which a flood, tornado or nuclear attack is.

That's the problem I have with the way that this is done. Sure, run a crawl on the TV screen or make an announcement on the radio. Putting info on those highway information signs is a brilliant idea. But abusing the EAS for this isn't right.

Another problem: they fail to differentiate an event where dad (who probably got royally screwed in the divorce) is a few hours late in bringing the kids back to mom's from the event where a sicko child molester kidnaps a child to do God-knows-what. All are treated in the same way, rather than addressing the real threat to the kids in these alerts.

 

[mjlarochelle]

"Min? The TV just broke into Miss America to tell us a kid is missing! Check the basement, see if she's there!"

"Ah! Here she is, Henry! She was hiding under the sink! Call the police and let them know."

Or the kid was hiding in a cardboard box in the rafters above the garage.

Now that would be an ironic interruption to a Falcons game.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Semi OT: Many cheap or small market stations have to squeeze the HD picture down to SD for weather alerts/amber alerts/ school closings because they lack the ability to overly the alert over the HD picture. HD viewers are the ones most screwed by amber alerts. They just issue amber alerts for anyone under 18 who goes missing, including runaway teens who leave willingly. At least they don't interrupt programming for non-stop missing child coverage like many stations due for severe weather on the fringes of their viewing area.

 

[azumanga]

I can't speak for TV but in radio you can delay the EAS from going off immediatly when the alert is sent so you can program around the alert without it breaking in to commercials or the middle of a song

In the old days of the Emergency Broadcasting System, both radio and TV stations generally schedule weekly tests and delay received monthly tests and alerts to the next commercial break. While most radio stations have the ability to delay today's EAS alerts and tests to the next commercial break, I noticed in the past that TV stations only schedule weekly tests around commercials, with monthly tests transmitted as received.

 

[rwells2265]

Another semi-OT thought: In South Carolina, the Amber Alert EAS messages break into the NOAA weather channels .... which means they trigger the alarm on weather radios. 

Living in Savannah, and with it the unpredictability of Summertime weather (pop-up storms, many of them nasty, can and do move in any direction - not just the standard E/NE/SE), I have our NOAA weather radio set for our local county and all bordering counties. 

Take that back: I deleted Jasper County, SC and just take my chances.  Exactly how does being jolted out of bed at 2:30 a.m. for an Amber Alert contribute to the good of this system??  One time was enough.  Oh, and the missing child was hours away from us, near North Carolina. 

Georgia's NOAA radio isn't affected this way.

But I am in agreement that the best avenues for Ambers are 1) radio and - especially - 2) the variable-message signboards on interstates.  A third, and most ideal, delivery method would be the LED billboards popping up everywhere.  Have them set up to interrupt each board's advertiser rotation.  Picture, car tag number, other pertinent info in living color on every billboard in a given area!

--Russell

 

[nomadcowatbk]

But I am in agreement that the best avenues for Ambers are 1) radio and - especially - 2) the variable-message signboards on interstates. A third, and most ideal, delivery method would be the LED billboards popping up everywhere. Have them set up to interrupt each board's advertiser rotation. Picture, car tag number, other pertinent info in living color on every billboard in a given area!

--Russell

But would the billboard companies give up advertising for Amber Alerts?

 

[firepoint525]

One TV station here in town once did a fictitious missing child story. They printed up posters with the "missing" child's picture on them, and posted them in a store window. The catch? The "missing" child was sitting on a bench in front of the store not even 10-15 feet away from the missing child poster with her picture on it! Afterwards, they asked customers of the store if they had even seen the missing child poster, or if they had even noticed the "missing" child sitting right there at the entrance to the store. Needless to say, they had not "connected the dots" on that one, so to speak.

 

[azumanga]

Exactly how does being jolted out of bed at 2:30 a.m. for an Amber Alert contribute to the good of this system??

Don't most newer weather radios have a feature that allows you to select which warnings that you want to hear?

 

[rwells2265]

Exactly how does being jolted out of bed at 2:30 a.m. for an Amber Alert contribute to the good of this system??

Don't most newer weather radios have a feature that allows you to select which warnings that you want to hear?

The regular Midland radio (the one commonly found in grocery stores, etc.), to my knowledge, is programmable only for the counties ... unless my manual was missing some pages.

--Russell

 

[rwells2265]

A third, and most ideal, delivery method would be the LED billboards popping up everywhere.  Have them set up to interrupt each board's advertiser rotation.  Picture, car tag number, other pertinent info in living color on every billboard in a given area!

But would the billboard companies give up advertising for Amber Alerts?

In a way, they are -- police "wanted" mugshots often can be found in the rotation around here. 

I believe, in light of the new billboard technology, the outdoor companies should have to be tied in with EAS (in Savannah, the electronic billboards already add pages alerting drivers to local weather warnings).  Indeed, it's a testament to the effectiveness of outdoor advertising, and - hate to say - it trumps radio and TV, especially when missing children are involved.  Fact is, billboards reach far more people in cars ... and not everybody listens to radio in the car anymore.  It's a little hard to break into an iPod to deliver the EAS duck farts.... ;-)  Plus, if the person is not listening at the moment the alert is first sent (and when unattended, they're delivered just that one time), they won't be aware of what's going down. 

In the case of billboards, for the duration of weather advisories, and Amber Alerts, they can rotate with appropriate frequency alongside the regular advertisers.  Just as spots sometimes get bumped on broadcast when bad weather hits, advertisers can receive makegoods for the reduced number of exposures.  And for tornado warnings affecting an area, it's nothing less than a public service - if the technology is there (and, with these boards, it is) - to display those bulletins constantly.  I suspect each board is remotely controlled from a central point, so warnings can be targeted to certain AREAS of the storm's path, not the entire county warned. 

Just my .02

--Russell

 

[MattParker]

This just in: Now some casinos are programming video slot machines to flash Amber Alerts. The way slots players can't stop playing - can't take their eyes off the machines - they are the last people who are going to spot anybody or anyting.