Rick Merrill (rick0.merrill@NOSPAM.gmail.com) Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:44:03 -0400

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Neal McLain wrote: > PAT wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Around here, the cable company runs a >> ticker strip message for missing children... > Those are Emergency Alert System (EAS) notices. FCC requires every CATV > serving over 1000 subs to carry EAS notices, and to keep a record of all > such notices. > http://www.hallikainen.com/FccRules/2007/76/1711/ > The EAS includes numerous "event codes": amber alert, blizzard, civil > emergency, earthquake, fire, flood, gas leak, nuclear plant warning, > railroad emergency, school closing emergency, tornado, tsunami, 911 > telephone outage, among others. > The Kansas EAS Plan is at > http://www.kansas.gov/kdem/pdf/commissions/eas_1998plan.pdf Kansas EAS > codes are listed in Annex G. > EAS notices can come from state or local sources, or even from the > President of the United States. > http://www.hallikainen.com/FccRules/2007/11/18/ >> Actually, the city of Independence has that built into >> the cableco franchise agreement: a channel for the high >> school and college's use (channel 22); a channel for the >> city itself (channel 14): and an 'all-purpose' general >> channel for anyone to use (channel 10)... > These channels are called, respectively, Educational, Government, and > Public Access Channels. Collectively, they're usually specified in > the following order: Public, Educational, and Government; hence, the > abbreviation "PEG channels." >> The city insisted that these channels all be in the 'free, basic' >> part of the spectrum so that everyone would be able to listen to >> them with or without payment for the premium channels (which they >> refer to as 'basic extended' (channels 25 and upward)... > That term is consistent with common CATV industry practice: > - "Basic" identifies the single tier of channels that must > be available to all subscribers. > - "Premium" means any channel offered at a per-channel > charge (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and The Movie Channel); > at a per-program charge (PPV); or as part of a group of > two or more channels offered as a package under a common > brand name (Encore; Starz). > - "Extended basic" means any multichannel tier other than > basic or premium. > - "Fat Basic" means the basic tier if the CATV system > doesn't carry any extended basic tiers. > Under FCC rules, the basic tier includes: > - All broadcast stations for which carriage is required > pursuant to the must-carry rules or to a retransmission- > consent agreement. > - PEG channels if required by the Local Franchising > Authority. > - Any additional channels that the cable operator carries > voluntarily. > http://www.hallikainen.com/FccRules/2007/76/901/ > Neal McLain Our MA cablecast is also (by law) plugged into the statewide Emergency Announcement System (EAS is a digital upgrade to the old Emergency Broadcasting System). The EAS random tests completely replace PEG transmissions. The state's EAS coordinator says EAS is activated via state police. EAS sends a 1.5 min. Audio message every 30 min. with a single frame of RED video that entirely overrides the cablecast.

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