Comments on: Emergency Alert System, REALLY?

By: Joe Ward

Joe Ward — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:57:17 +0000

The EAS interruptions are extremely infuriating when it happens during a Pay-per-view event. I order quite a few UFC Fights and Boxing matches on Midco’s PPV channels. On May 5th 2012 I ordered the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Miguel Cotto fight on PPV and the EAS System took over my cable box 5 different times for a severe thunderstorm warning in Minnesota. It costs 60 dollars to view a PPV fight and i miss the equivalent of about 5 rounds of boxing looking at a black EAS warning screen. I was not happy. During regular programming I don’t really get too upset. I understand the safety reasons but a scroll on the bottom of the screen really needs to be looked into for Pay-per-view events.

By: Albert

Albert — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 02:49:28 +0000

This is obnoxious. Not even three quarters of basketball and 6 interruptions! They need to join the 21st century and use scrolling tickers. If I had ordered a ppv fight I’d be xtra p!ssed and want some of my money back.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:48:44 +0000

Rabbit ears and tinfoil will fix your problems….

Because I don’t live in the Southeast corner of the state I rely on the internet when severe weather is coming, my biggest complaint is when they do the EMS tests at 2am….nothing worse than falling asleep with the tv on, being woken up by that beeping. Then I have to lay there watching infomercials waiting for my heart rate to get back to normal. Who would have ever thought they could come up with a way to talk for 30 minutes about a weed eater?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:03:40 +0000

I couldn’t AGREE more with your write up!!!! Thank you SO much for publishing what all of us are thinking!

By: V Vet

V Vet — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:45:35 +0000

About a moth ago the National Weather Service had a program here in Rapid and I got into quit a discussion about the number of warnings that go out. She did not want to hear about it. I think it was in Joplin last year that some of the deaths were blamed on people ignoring the latter warning because there had been so many.

By: RDL

RDL — Wed, 30 May 2012 01:00:18 +0000

TYPE IN ON YOU PC ” WUNDERGROUND.COM ” AND TYPE IN YOUR CITY AND YOU WILL GET AN “X ” WHERE YOUR ARE IN RELATION TO A STORM. ITS IN COLOR AND YOU CAN GET A LOT OF OTHER INFORMATION ALL WERATHER RELATED. YOU CAN CLICK ON ALL KINDS OF UP TO THE SECOND INFORMATION.

By: David

David — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:45:01 +0000

I use this thing called a computer when I want instant information.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:26:10 +0000

Tom is there any way they could have the scrolling message go across the bottom or top of the screen while you are watching a respective show, for example an up to the minute live doppler message i am getting from Jay or Brian? Thats the most annoying part for me. I get taken away from something i can physically see is going to carry my house away rather than just hear about it coming. Maybe someone could find a way to have them throw a current radar shot up on the screen? I don’t mind getting interrupted for something that saves lives, i just wish it was something that was going to be as even close to as effective as the news coverage that gets interrupted.

By: W. Tom Simmons

W. Tom Simmons — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:23:34 +0000

Doug: I’m sorry I was not available for your call. I did not see/hear the messages but have heard from others who did. I can’t confirm the garbled message issue, but there were indeed a bunch of messages. Too many for my liking, but that’s not our call. The weather warnings come from the National Weather Service over the EAS (Emergency Action Notification System). This is a government supported system that we are REQUIRED to carry. We simply pass through the electronic message we receive as we receive it. The messages are triggered automatically by the weather service and it overrides all programming. The voice is the automated weather service voice, the same one on weather radios. I knew there werre too many messages a couple of years ago when my grandaughter started mimicking the voice. We caught it before we needed to send her to a speech pathologist. I wish there was a way to narrow the scope of the messages to reduce the number that do not pertain to a majority of viewers. I’m not sure if there are plans to change or update this system, but there is a plan to develop an additional system for national emergencies. The FCC conducted one test and is planning more in the future. If oyu have suggestions on how we can make the system better for our viewers while operating within the requirements of the FCC I’m all ears. Thanks for the comments Doug, and for those of your blogger friends.

Best regards!

W. Tom Simmons
Senior VP of Public Policy
Midcontinent Communications

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:05:54 +0000

Don’t switch to Satellite, whatever you do! We had Direct TV for two painful years (i was caught in a contract) and every time it would sprinkle we would lose TV. My wife and i spend a lot of time outside and not watching TV. However every time we wanted to watch TV because the weather was crappy, we couldnt because we would lose signal.

Those EAS alerts are awful. There is nothing worse than getting state of the art technology taken off the air, and to taking a step back into the 1950′s to get a weather alert. At least if Trobec is on a can still do a screen-in-screen and watch another show if i want to.

By the way, how hard does the wind have to blow in order for Jay to switch his term from “breezy” to “windy”? In my opinion, Jay, if the wind is blowing 30+ that is WINDY, not BREEZY. Haha.

Also, does anyone remember when Patrick Griesegrabber (SP) was on the air at KSFY? Talk about a horrible TV name!