Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
The national test of the Emergency Alert System has become a near-annual tradition since the first one was conducted in 2011. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency says it will not conduct a nationwide EAS test in 2022.
“It will not happen this year,” said Antwane Johnson, FEMA's Deputy Assistant Administrator. “We are planning to do that in the early part of ’23,” he announced at last week’s NAB Show. Johnson said FEMA is working to develop a new survey system that would allow the government to better monitor the results of the national test of the Wireless Alert System (WEA), which is expected to be tested alongside EAS in the coming year.
The survey would poll the public about whether they heard or saw the alerts. The information would then be shared with broadcasters and the wireless industry. “We can use that information to improve our alert and warning capabilities for the nation,” said Johnson.
FEMA is currently going through the regulatory approval process for the survey, which needs to have the Department of Homeland Security and Office of Management and Budget give their blessing. “It takes a great deal of work to get a simple survey instrument approved to be able to collect that information,” Johnson said, explaining they hope that process will be completed to go forward in early 2023 with the next national test.
It will be the second year of the last three without a national EAS test. FEMA scrapped the 2020 test after it concluded broadcasters and federal agencies had enough on their plates coping with the pandemic. It returned to testing last August with a national test that was similar to what ran in 2019 with a test of the broadcast-based architecture with a daisy-chain of stations spreading the message from 76 Primary Entry Point or PEP stations.
The final report showed the test message reached 89.3% of the EAS participants, an increase from 82.5% in 2019. Among radio stations, the government said 88.8% of all participating stations successfully received the alert. And 87% were able to successfully retransmit the alert.
“We depend on broadcasters to be there,” said Johnson. He said that is why FEMA has heavily improved its 74 PEP stations which now provide 90% direct coverage of the U.S. population. That includes making sure they have backup studios and transmitters, fuel system, generators and many are protected from electromagnetic pulses -- something that would be critical in a nuclear strike. He said roughly half of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning Systems (IPAWS) program budget goes to improving PEP stations.
“We found that with all of the major disasters that have occurred across the U.S., whether it be tornadoes or earthquakes or hurricanes, broadcasters have been there to serve the public good when each of those threats to public safety have occurred,” said Johnson. “Broadcasting has been a critical communications lifeline to the community. Oftentimes, when we're dealing with emergencies and cellular services that are impacted, we know that you know that infrastructure is failing -- one of the best ways to get that information is from broadcasters, who are typically on the scene, making observations about what's going on the ground, and then providing that real timely information that people are in need of when they're trying to recover from whatever that threat is to public safety.”
During the NAB Show panel, Beasley Media Group VP of Engineering Lamar Smith said that theory was proved out in Panama City, FL. After Hurricane Michael hit in 2018, cell phones did not work for weeks. “Everybody was playing a radio station, and every radio station, regardless what their format was before the storm, after the storm, you’re news,” he said. “Radio is on the air, they're operating, and people are going there to find out what is going on.”