AWARN Expected With ATSC 3.0, FEMA Official Says
Public TV has the opportunity to provide trusted communication during emergencies, said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, at a session Monday at the Association of Public Television Stations Summit. Public TV needs to work with FEMA to provide emergency coverage, said APTS CEO Patrick Butler at the session. Stations have to “market” their ability to provide coverage during emergencies, even when cable and The Weather Channel goes out, Fugate said.
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The Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) will give Americans video emergency messages even when cellular networks are congested or the electric grid goes down, Fugate said. AWARN is planned to be included in next-generation TV broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 (see 1502190030), he said. Smartphones become “bricks” during emergencies, Fugate said. People struggle to stream information and make calls and may only be able to text, he said. Cable offered this opportunity “until the power went out or cable got cut,” he said. “Then you could still get the public TV stations. Use the spectrum you already have to tell people what warnings mean.” Wireless alerts only explain that “something is happening” and people should seek more information, he said. When people don’t listen to or understand alerts, they don’t evacuate and lose their lives, Fugate said. A warning is successful only if behavior changes and there’s not loss of life, he said.
Public TV uses long-form programming to explain warnings, emergencies and weather-related events, Fugate said. “It's usually the first to drop normal programming to cover emergencies and the last to go back to normal programming,” he said. “Personalizing information is where you have an advantage.” Public TV stations can “go long-form and focus without the pressure for selling advertising,” he said. “You're that trusted agent in your community. We want to work with you to build that trust and provide information when there’s an emergency.” During Hurricane Katrina news conferences, when President George W. Bush started speaking Spanish, commercial stations switched away from coverage but public TV continued the stream, he said. “When emergencies happen, people rely most on their native tongues.” Public TV has the ability to cover the entirety of such news conferences, while a commercial station “has the attention span of a gnat,” said Fugate.
Public TV is the backbone of emergency messaging, said Janyth Righter, executive director of Florida Public Broadcasting Service (FPBS), an association of the state’s public TV and radio stations, in an interview. “We need to communicate this,” she said. “It needs to be part of our discussion with the public.” Commercial TV has to return to common coverage within three days, but in the years Florida had heavy hurricanes, its public stations continued that coverage for three months, she said. “That’s something you can’t do in commercial TV.” When New Orleans stations went down during Katrina, FPBS stations in Pensacola partnered with stations in Alabama and Mississippi to continue providing coverage and information to the New Orleans community, she said. APTS attendees planned to request money for an interconnection fund Tuesday during visits on Capitol Hill to ensure public TV has the infrastructure to provide coverage during emergencies, said Bonita Neff, chairwoman of Lakeshore Public Media of Merrillville, Indiana, in an interview. “We don’t have an advertising source. We don’t have anybody to answer to. When we need to, we get to the public now.”
If stations have news departments, like his old station WTIU Bloomington, Indiana, it makes sense for them to provide coverage earlier and stay on longer, said Phil Meyer, CEO of ValleyPBS of Fresno, California, in an interview. Some stations don’t have the infrastructure or interconnection to provide such emergency coverage, so they could partner with others, he said. FEMA should create “very localized PSAs [public service announcements] tailored to your market,” he said. Emergency situations differ drastically depending on the market, including wildfires and earthquakes in California and tornadoes in Indiana, he said.
Public broadcasters need to go to their state governments and legislators and explain what they can provide during emergencies, Fugate said. “The messaging has to be if you want to know what’s going on in your community, we’re your community TV stations." Public TV needs PSAs to help spread this message, he said. "Our PSAs are ideal for 30-second gaps when you’re not doing your pledge weeks.” FEMA will help develop tools for public TV stations, he said. Setting up FirstNet, the LTE-based public safety network, will be a long process, he said. FirstNet radios for responders will reach urban areas first, then move into rural areas, he said. Fugate worried about a backup with congestion issues. Smartphones have a single point of failure -- if the network is down or congested, there isn’t a backup, he said. “Public safety tends to be two or three generations behind the technology,” he said. “There’s high-strung costs that you have to cover through bonds and borrowing. People get locked into systems.”