EAS? Test Reporting? YES!

The living used to be easy in summertime. But just as we were all sipping lemonade and heading for the hammock, the FCC jolted broadcasters (and their FCC counsel) awake with a new registration and info collecting regimen called the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS).

We know, your ice hadn’t even started to melt yet. We empathize.

Here’s the short story. The FCC wants to run another national test of the EAS system. The one they did five years ago was, in a word, horrible. And anything the FCC does poorly once, they try again. So except for TV translators and FM translators, each broadcast station must electronically register in ETRS and file ETRS Form One no later than August 26, 2016.  There’s more detail in this public notice and after you enjoy that summer reading, click here to complete the steps necessary for ETRS registration.  Completing that will generate an email to authenticate you, and then you get to file ETRS Form One. That process is a bit hairy, but this public notice will help. We’ve been told by one client to ignore the map of China that generates next to your station coordinates during Form One filing. No, seriously, we saw a screen save of it. Honest. But we are not in China. We’re hopeful the FCC will fix that odd glitch.

Word on the street is that a national EAS test will happen this fall (not related, we’re assured, to a certain national election . . . ahem). So after you register and file Form One, keep the ETRS link on your favorites list, as you’ll be needing it to file Form Two and Form Three as part of that process. Couldn’t they have used Thing One, Thing Two and Thing Three instead?

Now that you’re aware of this new summertime requirement, we recommend you delegate it (if possible) to an able-bodied and earnest employee or trusted soul (but verify later) and head to your hammock to finish that book.