Radio and “National Security”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Citadel/ABC hired a large firm on June 4th to deal with “restructuring” its debt, so this may be approaching more than hypothetical status…

Let’s say hypothetically that any one of the top 5 largest Radio Owners fails and files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  What would happen next?

There are people who specialize in managing radio stations while the owners are in the bankruptcy process (or when a sole proprietor dies suddenly).  Typically radio bankruptcies involve “mom and pop” local radio stations, not big conglomerates. 

When a radio station folds, it often goes silent for a while and the FCC is notified and the license is transferred to the debtor in possession – but banks are not qualified to operate a radio station, so the FCC wants to know that someone who knows the FCC regulations is running the station. 

To keep the FCC license from lapsing, the bankruptcy court hires someone to run the station until the license can be disposed of – which generally means little more than playing automated or satellite fed music for months.  The objective is to spend as little money as possible until a new owner for a station is found, often times by auctioning off the assets.

But what would happen if an owner with 100 or more radio stations and 1,000s of employees closes its doors suddenly?  This has serious national security implications (that’s not hyperbole).

As long as most of us have been alive, we’ve heard Emergency Broadcast System messages on Radio and TV doing tests to warn us in event of an “actual emergency”.   EBS was renamed EAS a few years ago.

The basic principle of the EAS is that every radio, TV station, and Cable TV system are required to have an EAS decoder connected to their transmitter equipment.  The EAS device is pre-configured to “listen” to one or more EAS  Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations for national messages, and local relay stations (LP1 and LP2) – and if the appropriate signals are received, the EAS message takes over control of the radio, TV stations unilaterally.  The station has no discretion in the matter on national messages.   If you want to read more about EAS, here is the EAS Page at the FCC Website.

In June of 2007, there was an accidental activation of the real doomsday facility in the Chicago area – announcing that a White House spokesperson was about to address the country.  [TV coverage and report here]

In this case, the LP1 station was WGN-AM  (The owner of WGN is currently in bankruptcy, but WGN is their only radio station and the bankruptcy is proceeding in an orderly manner).

What if one or more of the really big radio owners fails?  In order to protect the operations of the EAS, the failed company’s radio stations cannot be allowed to “go dark”, even temporarily – and must remain  staffed 24 hrs/day with someone familiar with the EAS procedures and equipment (that’s an EAS requirement).   Could this become the pretext for a government seizure of some radio stations in the interest of national security?  

The EAS system is based on 34 PEP (Primary Entry Point) stations that feed every station in its area (typically an old 50 kw legacy AM station).  The government  is adding more PEPs so eventually there will be one in every state (but waiving the requirement that they have a fallout shelter).   The AM PEPs being directional at night starting in 1986  also impairs their ability – PEPs can broadcast non-directional at night during an emergency if someone knows how to turn on the daytime settings at night…  The brand new 50 kw station near Fargo, ND did exactly that during 2009’s Spring floods.

Here is the requirement to be a PEP, dating back to the 1960s and “duck and cover”…

• Diesel backup generator with fuel sufficient for 30 days of continuous broadcasting without commercial power
• Landline, satellite, and HF radio connectivity to FEMA OperationCenters
• Special EAS Encoder/Decoders (ENDECs) with unique EAS codes
• Generally located just outside of major city area for survivability
• Fallout shelter, on-site food, and special lightning protection 

Here is the list of PEPs as of 2001:

As more people began to watch Cable TV or satellite TV instead “over the air” TV, Cable TV and DirecTV systems were also brought under the control of EBS.   If you’re watching HBO, you still need to know that a tornado warning has been issued or that North Korea has just launched a nuclear missile.

In addition to the 34 PEPs, each state has a local Network consisting of LP1 and LP2 stations that allow the Governor  of a state to alert people in his/her state. 

The EAS system is further being expanded as part of thing called IPAWS, which will enable FEMA to do things like have sign language video messages for those who are deaf.

I’m going to start adding an EAS logo to those stations that are PEPs or LPs so that in the event the EAS doesn’t function as intended some day, you may be able to find a stream carrying a nationwide alert should the unthinkable happen some day.   Hopefully your internet service remains up.