CFR > Title 47 - Telecommunication > CHAPTER I—FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION > SUBCHAPTER A—GENERAL (Parts 0–19) > PART 11—EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS) > SUBPART D—Emergency Operations (§11.51 to §11.56) > 11.55—EAS operation during a State or Local Area emergency.

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

(a) All EAS Participants within a state (excepting SDARs and DBS providers) must receive and transmit state-level and geographically targeted EAS messages, as aggregated and delivered by the state governor or his/her designee, or by FEMA on behalf of such state governor, upon approval by the Commission of an applicable state plan providing for delivery of such alerts no sooner than 180 days after adoption of CAP by FEMA. Examples of natural emergencies which may warrant activation are: Tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, heavy snows, icing conditions, widespread fires, etc. Man-made emergencies 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. The plans must list all authorized entities participating in the State or Local Area EAS.
(c) Immediately upon receipt of a State or Local Area EAS message, EAS Participants participating in the State or Local Area EAS must do the following:
(1) State Relay (SR) sources monitor the State Relay Network or follow the State EAS plan for instructions from the State Primary (SP) source.
(2) Local Primary (LP) sources monitor the Local Area SR sources or follow the State EAS plan for instructions.
(3) Participating National (PN) and Non-participating National (NN) sources monitor the Local Area LP sources for instructions.
(4) EAS Participants participating in the State or Local Area EAS must discontinue normal programming and follow the procedures in the State and Local Area plans. Analog and digital television broadcast stations must comply with § 11.54(b)(5); analog cable systems, digital cable systems, and wireless cable systems must comply with § 11.54(b)(6); and DBS providers must comply with § 11.54(b)(7). EAS Participants providing foreign language programming should comply with § 11.54(b)(8).
(5) 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.
(6) Resume normal operations upon conclusion of the message.
(7) The times of the above EAS actions must be entered in the EAS Participants' records as specified in §§ 11.35(a) and 11.54(b)(13).
(8) Use of the EAS codes or Attention Signal automatically grants rebroadcast authority as specified in § 11.54(d).
[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]