FCC dings Texas TV station $369K for EAS violations including ETRS

While the overall violations committed were beyond egregious, this is the first enforcement action that we have seen that included failure to file ETRS forms.

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NALF) for $369,190 against Corridor Television, L.L.P., licensee of TV station KCWX, Fredricksburg, Texas for violations involving the Emergency Alert System (EAS), including the first known enforcement action taken in connection with the filing of forms in the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS), which is used for the National Periodic Test (NPT) of the EAS.

In this case, there were numerous violations, including Corridor’s failure to file all three ETRS forms in connection with the 2018 NPT, making false statements on ETRS filings in 2018, 2019 and 2021 and over the air violations during the NPT.

A complaint was filed with the FCC stating that from 2018 through 2021, KCWX “misrepresented its handling and deployment of three nationwide tests of the EAS and violated multiple rules, including requirements that stations participate in national tests as well as rules that prohibit false or deceptive EAS transmissions.”

The complaint alleges that in 2018, 2019 and 2021, KCWX did not conduct a live reception of the test. Instead, they were accused of “simulating” the tests instead of participating in them.

In a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) sent by the Enforcement Bureau, KCWX admits that they did not transmit the the test script audio, activation codes and crawling messages in the 2018 and 2019 NPTs and did not use the correct header tones in all three tests. KCWX stated that because their staff did not know how to properly handle the NPT, they substituted and transmitted prior years’ EAS tones that it had gathered from the internet. Stations are required to retransmit the message that they receive through their monitoring source and are not allowed to originate the test locally. The whole idea of the NPT is to test the efficacy of the national (Presidential) level of alerting in order to reach a nationwide audience.

The FCC had determined that KCWX made incorrect or misleading statements on the ETRS forms as they claimed they had received and retransmitted the message that was received on that day from their various monitoring sources. This includes a false statement where KCWX claimed that they received an alert in 2019 from the Integrated Public Warning Alerting System (IPAWS). In 2019, IPAWS was not used for the NPT.

During the years when the Federal Emergency Management Agency issues an NPT, stations are required to file three forms. Form One is filed prior to the test to give the FCC information about the EAS participant. Form Two is filed on the day on the test to provide the FCC with an instantaneous result as to whether the test was received and forwarded. Form Three is filed in the days following the test where stations can elaborate on the their reception and forwarding of the test, including any issues the station ran into. In 2018, KCWX failed to file Form Three.

While this is a very large fine, I want to point out that the reason for this large fine was not because the station missed an ETRS filing, it was because they did a lot of egregious actions that literally made a mockery of the whole entire NPT concept and they violated one of the golden rules of broadcasting, never lie to the FCC. The missed ETRS filing accounted for about $3,000 of this overall fine, which is the base forfeiture for failing to file a required form. For LPFM, the most common application of this type of fine is for failure to timely file renewal applications; and by policy, the FCC normally downward adjusts the fine to $1,500..

What does this mean for LPFM stations? It only means that the FCC could, if they want to, take enforcement action against stations that do not file their ETRS forms. Since there are about 2,000 stations and on the average, only about 30% of all LPFMs are actually filing their ETRS forms during the test, it would be a ton of work for the Commission to equally treat over a thousand LPFM stations.

Does this mean that LPFM stations can just not file ETRS and not worry about it? Absolutely not! LPFM stations are required to be EAS participants and as such, they are also required to participate make filings that are required of all EAS participants, such as the NPT. This may be the first enforcement action that addresses ETRS, but it may not be the last. Don’t be the next. Make sure your station participates. Stay tuned to REC’s news channels such Substack, Facebook, BlueSky and X (Twitter) for updates.

While nothing has yet been officially announced by the FCC or FEMA, we are predicting that there will be a full NPT in 2025 which requires the filing of all three forms. This is why it is important for all stations to assure that they have their EAS equipment working, it has the current software version and that the EAS logs are frequently checked to assure that you are receiving all of your monitoring assignments, including IPAWS. Also, make sure you have a copy of the official FCC EAS Handbook at all control points for the station.

EAS is your duty to serve the public, in the public interest. Let’s do it right!