§ 11.55 - EAS operation during a State or Local Area emergency.

§ 11.55 EAS operation during a State or Local Area emergency.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 87 FR 67825, Nov. 10, 2022.

(a) The EAS may be activated at the State and Local Area levels by EAS Participants at their discretion for day-to-day emergency situations posing a threat to life and property. Examples of natural emergencies which may warrant state EAS activation are: Tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, heavy snows, icing conditions, widespread fires, etc. Man-made emergencies warranting state EAS activation may include: Toxic gas leaks or liquid spills, widespread power failures, industrial explosions, and civil disorders.

(1) DBS providers shall pass through all EAS messages aired on local television broadcast stations carried by DBS providers under the Commission's broadcast signal carriage rules to subscribers receiving those channels.

(2) SDARS licensees and DBS providers may participate in EAS at the state and local level and make their systems capable of receiving and transmitting state and local level EAS messages on all channels. If an SDARS licensee or DBS provider is not capable of receiving and transmitting state and local EAS message on all channels, it must inform its subscribers, on its website and in writing on an annual basis, of which channels are and are not capable of supplying state and local messages.

(b) EAS operations must be conducted as specified in State and Local Area EAS Plans.

(c) An EAS Participant that participates in the State or Local Area EAS, upon receipt of a State or Local Area EAS message that has been formatted in the EAS Protocol and that has event and location header codes indicating that it is a type of message that the EAS Participant normally relays, consistent with the procedures in the State or Local Area EAS Plan, must do the following:

(1) Prior to December 12, 2023, the EAS Participant shall follow the procedures set forth in the State EAS Plan and paragraphs (c)(3) through(7) of this section.

(2) On and after December 12, 2023,—

(i) CAP Prioritization. If a message formatted in the Common Alerting Protocol is available that is a duplicate of the received message formatted in the EAS Protocol, then the EAS Participant shall not transmit the received message formatted in the EAS Protocol but shall follow the procedures in paragraph (d) of this section to transmit the message formatted in the Common Alerting Protocol.

(ii) Polling. At least ten (10) seconds after detecting the initial header code of a received message formatted in the EAS protocol, if the EAS Participant has not by that time determined that a duplicate message formatted in the Common Alerting Protocol is available, it shall poll the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) at least once to determine whether a duplicate CAP-formatted alert message is available.

(A) If a duplicate CAP-formatted alert message is available, the EAS Participant shall proceed according to paragraphs (c)(2)(i) and (d) of this section.

(B) If no duplicate CAP-formatted alert message is available, or if the alert contents, including the audio message, cannot be acquired within a reasonable timeframe, the EAS Participant shall proceed according to paragraphs (c)(3)–(7) of this section.

(iii) For purposes of this paragraph (c)(2), two EAS messages are “duplicates” if the originator codes, event codes, location codes, and date-time codes in the validated headers of both messages are all identical, and the valid time-period codes in the headers of both messages cover approximately the same periods of time, with allowances for the different manners in which messages in CAP and legacy EAS formats express valid time periods.

(3) EAS Participants participating in the State or Local Area EAS must discontinue normal programming and follow the procedures in their State and Local Area Plans. Analog and digital television broadcast stations must transmit all EAS announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(a) through (e) and 73.1250(h) of this chapter, as applicable; analog cable systems, digital cable systems, wireless cable systems, and wireline video systems must transmit all EAS announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(d), (g), and (h); and DBS providers must transmit all EAS announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(d) and (j). EAS Participants providing foreign language programming should transmit all EAS announcements in the same language as the primary language of the EAS Participant.

(4) Upon completion of the State or Local Area EAS transmission procedures, resume normal programming until receipt of the cue from the SR or LP sources in your Local Area. At that time begin transmitting the common emergency message received from the above sources.

(5) Resume normal operations upon conclusion of the message.

(6) The times of the above EAS actions must be entered in the EAS Participants' records as specified in §§ 11.35(a) and 11.54(a)(3).

(7) Use of the EAS codes or Attention Signal automatically grants rebroadcast authority as specified in § 11.54(b).

(d) An EAS Participant that participates in the State or Local Area EAS, upon receipt of a State or Local Area EAS message that has been formatted in the Common Alerting Protocol and that has event and location header codes indicating that it is a type of message that the EAS Participant normally relays, must do the following:

(1) EAS Participants participating in the State or Local Area EAS must follow the procedures for processing such messages in the State and Local Area Plans.

(2) Analog and digital television broadcast stations must transmit all EAS announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(a) through (e) and 73.1250(h) of this chapter, as applicable; analog cable systems, digital cable systems, wireless cable systems, and wireline video systems must transmit all EAS announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(d), (g), and (h); and DBS providers must transmit all EAS announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(d) and (j). EAS Participants providing foreign language programming should transmit all EAS announcements in the same language as the primary language of the EAS Participant.

(3) Resume normal operations upon conclusion of the message.

(4) The times of the above EAS actions must be entered in the EAS Participants' records as specified in §§ 11.35(a) and 11.54(a)(3).

[59 FR 67092, Dec. 28, 1994, as amended at 63 FR 29666, June 1, 1998; 65 FR 21658, Apr. 24, 2000; 67 FR 18511, Apr. 16, 2002; 70 FR 71037, Nov. 25, 2005; 71 FR 76220, Dec. 20, 2006; 72 FR 62135, Nov. 2, 2007; 77 FR 16706, Mar. 22, 2012; 83 FR 37759, Aug. 2, 2018; 87 FR 67825, Nov. 10, 2022]