FCC Proposes $369,000 Penalty for Broadcaster That Created EAS Test Message

FCC, said a notice of apparent liability in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Commissioner Nathan Simington dissented from the NAL against Corridor Television, as he promised to do for votes involving monetary penalties in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s SEC v. Jarkesy decision (see 2409060054). Corridor’s TV station, KCWX Fredericksburg, Texas, didn’t transmit correct audio and other information in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 nationwide EAS tests, according to the NAL. The matter was brought to the FCC’s attention by a complaint, and Corridor “admitted that in 2018, it created EAS segments relying on a previous year’s test, and that in 2019 and 2021, it downloaded EAS headers, test script audio, crawls, and activation codes from the Internet to create its own test segment,” it added. Corridor blamed the error on its small staff, its inexperience and lack of knowledge about operating the station’s EAS equipment. Corridor “claimed that it made a ‘good faith effort’ to comply with its EAS obligations and thought it had done so,” the NAL said. “Corridor’s noncompliance over multiple years based on its staff’s claimed ignorance of the law shows minimal effort on the Station’s part and hardly constitutes a ‘good faith effort.’” Corridor didn’t file a 2018 emergency test system report and submitted false information on other nationwide test reporting filings certifying compliance with FCC EAS rules, the NAL said. Corridor’s “inaccurate reporting of its participation and performance during the 2018, 2019, and 2021 Nationwide Tests of the EAS undermined the Commission’s ‘ability to collect, process and evaluate data about EAS alerting pathways’” and “detracted” from the FCC’s public safety goals. The agency’s calculation of Corridor’s proposed forfeiture includes a 100% upward adjustment to reflect “particularly egregious conduct” involving emergency messaging and a $61,238 penalty for Corridor’s five incorrect test reporting filings.