FCC fines be damned, ESPN misuses emergency alert tones yet again Sports broadcasting network ESPN faces a proposed fine for using emergency alert service (EAS) attention sounds without authorization - again, apparently. The Federal Communications Commission published an order today finding ESPN liable for six instances of broadcasting EAS sounds not to notify the public of an actual …
Broadcast means broadcast over the air waves to consumers. Cable or satellite are not considered this and are a paid for service. That's why cable and sat communications don't come under broadcast rules, they can't be received freely.
Mouse and Company, Inc. need to have their ass kicked for this crap. But hey, corporate America owns the government now and can and will flip off the FCC while they laugh all the way to the bank.
The mouse that roared... and it sounded like THIS at 853 Hz and 960 Hz .
Don't know, but I'd be perfectly fine with a rule change making a fourth offense about 5 years of prison time for the CEO and board of any broadcasting company that does this. Hold them without bond until the trial concludes, and no false imprisonment claims due to being held for trial. Further, no country clubs, they get held in the same lockup as any other nonviolent offender. This would be a much larger deterrent than letting them stay free for the trial as it would ensure they served some time for the infraction regardless of whether or not the company can buy its way out if trouble.
Actually, such a rule for any C-suite infractions would go a long way towards reigning said infractions in. Who knows, if the trial goes on long enough a new board takes over, and they just leave the old board twisting in the wind.
Don't know, but I'd be perfectly fine with a rule change making a fourth offense about 5 years of prison time for the CEO and board of any broadcasting company that does this.
Everyone deserves due process, whether we like what they are doing or not. And agency rules can only fine, or remove a grant under their control. Example, Fish and Wildlife could fine you for catching more than your limit, and revoke your fishing license. You have to break an actual law to be tried for a crime. Congress could pass a law with prison time for people responsible, but it will never happen.
A better solution is just boycotting those companies. Whether you want to call it personally selecting the type of people/companies you want to associate with, or cancel culture.
Everyone deserves due process...
These days in the USA, "due process" means that wealthy people and corporations almost never pay for their bad behaviour.
Trump is a perfect example. He managed to stall and stonewall the IRS for so many years over his corrupt tax returns that they finally gave up, it was too costly and too time-consuming to continue. Precisely the outcome Trump wanted. He does this with any entity he has a disagreement with of any kind.
(Doesn't help that the Republican party regularly eviscerates the IRS's budget whenever they are in power, precisely so that they cannot afford to pursue such enforcement cases.)
Can the FCC pull their broadcast license? Or at least threaten to? That has far bigger consequences than a minuscule fine.
No. Nor can they increase the fine. Congress has to provide legislation (that is then signed by the President) to increase the fine or provide other sanctions. That's the way it works on this side of the pond.
In spite of what tRump might want you to believe.
I am not ashamed to admit it was well produced and almost got me twice. They used the same tones as the county sheriff (regional/territorial police) and they applied a fade-in on it to sound like a squad car is in the distance but not near you yet to draw your attention.
That other people drive in a daze and jolt back to reality when a siren is going off I expect. It is Florida after all, and the cops don't pull people over for missing plates or openly playing with their phone while in motion (all chestbeating about law and order not withstanding).
When I drive I use all available information sources, although I'll admit the radio side of things is less useful when I drive in a place of which I do not speak the language (I only speak 3 1/2 :) ).
Google Maps and TomTom tend to generate their own data real time from others (when they're not mislead - TomTom was fed some wrong data for a while which I suspect was an experiment by government in road management), but the radio service can also announce things that have as yet to happen.
What? Why is it your automatic assumption that everybody listens to music via streaming? There's a world of people who (a) don't have smart phones (b) refuse to pay more than once to listen to a song (c) want to listen to things not available via streaming (d) while they find them annoying, they are mostly OK with ads. And people are keeping their cars a lot longer now (mainly because new ones are much more expensive). My 2005 big-grandpa sedan doesn't have Bluetooth anything, just a good AM/FM radio. Still runs, so why change.
Even so, you still have to look around and that's a distraction which creates a hazard to you and the drivers around you.
Driving is statistically dangerous enough as it it without adding additional hazards just for some dubious commercial or "artistic" purpose, don't you think?
.. and that's why I absolutely HATE having to dedicate cognitive capacity to the Volvo I'm currently using just to deal with the possible problems it can otherwise cause. Its interface is full of inconsistencies such as the cruise control stepping up/down by 5km at a time, with a long press doing it in single increments, UNLESS you're accelerating which is when it reverses this. Want to dim the dashboard? It managed to make that as bad as Peugeot by burying that 3 levels deep in the menu.
You know, stuff you NEED when you're driving, not all the BS that Google tries to lob at you. I have no idea which cretin designed that UX but he/she should be relegated to emptying bins and not being allowed near anything more sophisticated than an Etch-a-sketch anymore.
Oh, don't get me started about my BMW's electronics. . .
It's the 4th one I've had with onboard "driver assist" features and they've become progressively more annoying and complicated.
My "favorite" misfeature is the "It's time to take a rest" alert that pops up after a couple of hours. It invariably announces itself with a bong at the moment I'm on a tricky interchange (think the 101 to I-5 ramp to the San Diego Freeway just south of the "Four Level" in downtown Los Angeles, yes, it's just as heinous as it sounds) or needing to cross three lanes of traffic to get from a off ramp to an immediate left turn (Brits think right turn), precisely when what I don't need is even a momentary distraction.
Car UIs have been getting rapidly worse over the last decade or so.
I really like my current one, except for all the parts only available on the touchscreen - although they did have the sense to put the virtual buttons by the edges, where they are possible to find without looking.
It's getting on a bit now, so started looking around.
Guess what - everything is a touchscreen now, and usually up on a stupid looking stalk so they can more easily swap it out as a factory "upgrade".
It's entirely because it's cheap.
Your instinct is to look around but what else are you doing while looking around? You begin to slow down ready to anticipate your next move. You also start moving slightly to the curb because you know that vehicle if it exists won't be undertaking you.
In other words you just started to pull over. Unless of course you just keep podding along with zero regard for how you will move out of the way which is very unlikely because as you said you already started looking around. You may not consciously realise you are doing it but you are.
I'm not denying that what ESPN are doing is incredibly annoying (as is all TV advertising imo), but if the US is relying on a specific sound to grab people's attention in the event of an emergency, I feel like they've already failed. Every other country seems to manage without this system... maybe the whole thing needs a rethink. Especially with the ongoing trend away from consumption of live broadcast media – if it were the system in the UK, for example, the only chance I'd have of hearing it would be if it just happened to coincide with the half hour or so in a day during which I was listening to Radio 4. Feels incredibly flawed and outdated (the alert system, not Radio 4...).
"there's no way to change it"
It can easily be turned off. I'd call that a change. In any case, I shan't be hearing it because
"Emergency alerts work on ... Android phones and tablets running Android 11 or later"
I'm not ditching my perfectly serviceable phone from 2017 just for this.
The highest alert level is "Presidential Alert" and only gets used to warn of Presidential motorcades and such. Despite the hype when some US people found out "Trump can use the Presidential Alert system whenever he wants", it's not as simple as "use the Presidential Alert system to tell everyone to vote for me!".
"relying on a specific sound to grab people's attention". The alert tones weren't designed to grab attention; they're in--band signals designed to trigger downstream receivers. Grabbing listeners' attention was a secondary function. This scheme dates back to the old EBS system which has worked for a very, very long time. Back when I was a broadcast engineer (read: back when there was such a thing and it actually required testing and licensure) one would get fined and fired for even the first offense. There are no standards any more.
"The alert tones weren't designed to grab attention; they're designed to trigger downstream receivers."
(a) apparently, they were designed to grab attention:
"the two tones, which form approximately the interval of a just major second at an unusually high pitch, were chosen specifically for their ability to draw attention, due to their unpleasantness on the human ear."
and (b) what's the point of them now (particularly on phones) if that's not their purpose? Trying to legislate against a certain sound being used is like trying to ban printing t-shirts with the DeCSS code.
The unpleasantness was a secondary consideration. The _primary_ focus _was_ to avoid being close enough to typical broadcast content in order to minimize false tripping of downstream receivers -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_System. Otherwise, a single irritating 7-8 kHz tone would be far easier to generate.
However, my intent was to point out the history, not to defend the current usage. SAME/SAGE does use the tones for attention signals, and their necessity is debatable. As to using them on phones, I'd agree there's no reason to do so; that can be a purely digital solution and not audible.
I'm not sure how it works Britian (I still can't get over the fact you have to pay the government a hefty tax to watch TV). However, that alert tone is DEEPLY embedded in our psyche. If you are from England, watch your parent's and grandparent's reaction to an air-raid siren. Same thing. It was cemented into our brains that tone signaled the impending end of the world. My parents, and then I were drilled MONTHLY on what to do if we heard that tone. You walked around with a keen awareness of where the nearest shelter was in case the Russians dropped the big one on us. In case of emergency, that tone was on EVERY communications channel simultaneously. It elicits a very real flight-or-fight response.
Also, there are (or were) automatic systems tied to those tones. Places like hospitals had dedicated radios tuned to a station (usually a clear-channel AM) and when the alert was tested, that hospital radio alerted and a human was supposed to check on it. Because they did test it, the alert never directly resulted in an action; some human had to push the button.
These days there are other systems now, but all of those are a lot more vulnerable to failure and sabotage than the old fashioned EWS system. So, hands off the tones.
And, although it wasn't needed for nuclear attack after all, it's also familiar to people who had extreme weather. To someone who grew up after the cold war, that tone didn't mean missiles on the way. It meant tornado sighting near to your house, get to safety. My house was never destroyed by a tornado, but I knew people it did happen to. In other areas, it could be used for other disasters. That's why this network chose to use it. It does attract attention.
"These days there are other systems now, but all of those are a lot more vulnerable to failure and sabotage than the old fashioned EWS system. So, hands off the tones."
Usurping the tones for crass advertising is akin to shouting 'fire' in a crowded theatre as far as I'm concerned.
Just another reason to not consume any ESPN content. Ever since NHL games left broadcast TV in the US, I've pretty much ignored professional sports. Before that when I worked at a bar, we'd often go to the local ballpark for an afternoon baseball game. Splitting the parking amongst 5 people in the car wasn't much, the tickets were reasonably priced and beer/hot dogs, while more than elsewhere, weren't too far overpriced to not buy them. The price kept creeping up to the point where now it costs a car payment for two people to go watch a game with refreshments. The citizenship of the players isn't even a thing anymore and they aren't very nice people to boot. The value for money has dropped below zero and I'll just put my cash towards a new high-end computer monitor I've had my eye on (so to speak).
"I still can't get over the fact you have to pay the government a hefty tax to watch TV"
I'd rather live in the UK and have to pay for a TV licence than live in the US and potentially have to remortgage my house to have my appendix out.
Plus, the levels of advertising on US TV – the ESPN thing included – mean that I'd rather gouge my eyes out than watch it. At least we have the option of watching channels without advertising.
Its the perennial problem with legacy technology. When it was first introduced it would have been State of the Art. The tones would trigger precede a message, nominally from the President, probably warning of an impending nuclear attack or some such. There was a cascade of stations -- regional broadcasters would monitor a central station and when the alert was detected they'd interrupt their program and repeat the message, again preceded by the alert tone. It belongs to an era where radio in the US meant "AM" and that band included a couple of frequencies that were exclusive for Civil Defense. (The original system, dating from the early 50s, had everyone stopping transmission on an alert with just these two frequencies then being used).
All this technology is obsolete. The tones might linger on in our cellphones but the entire legacy AM broadcast system is under threat, if for no other reason that AM is incompatible with electric vehicles, the shielding problem is just not cost effective to solve. Its got to the point that one of our oldest broadcasting stations in Los Angeles, KNX-1070, an AM station that traces its broadcast history back to 1921, acquired a FM frequency a few years ago and now bills itself as "KNX-97.1".
"ts got to the point that one of our oldest broadcasting stations in Los Angeles, KNX-1070, an AM station that traces its broadcast history back to 1921, acquired a FM frequency a few years ago and now bills itself as "KNX-97.1"."
While AM/MW may fade out, part of that spectrum can still be used for emergency broadcasts. Filtering is much simpler if you only need to resolve a few discrete stations rather than the whole band. Fidelity is also not a huge issue so some noise, even if it's annoying to listen to, might not matter. What might be good to evolve is a warning system that can trigger a display that will show a short text message (tornado, hurricane, global thermonuclear war). It's like the time signal that plays on 5,10,15 and 20mHz. It's still useful even with GPS time.
I don't mind information and news channels shifting to FM. There's fewer and fewer useful stations on FM now that AM is becoming really redundant even in big markets. Satellite makes it simple to broadcast programs across large regions where AM used to have its big advantage. I can remember listening to KFI, KHJ and even KNX/KFWB when I was in the western US. I could even get them in Texas. Who was it that had their transmitter in Mexico that pushed out the most power? I could put a metal screwdriver on the tape head of my cassette player and tune that station in.
"Are you thinking of XEPRS (was at one time XERB) out of Tijuana?"
No, it was an American broadcaster with a "k" call sign. That was ages ago. Their transmitter was just over the border so they could pump up the volume to 11.
"AM broadcast system is under threat, if for no other reason that AM is incompatible with electric vehicles, the shielding problem is just not cost effective to solve."
This is the false narrative from EV manufacturers. Electric vehicles have no special electromagnetic radiation that has not already been seen and controlled to be "compatible" with AM. The problem is not one of not being cost effective, but being prohibitive to maximum profits. I believe there may be FCC rules prohibiting the interference, which of course are also being flaunted.
The local AM station moving to FM likely happened as the easiest route to the station maintaining viability. Their cost to shoulder the fight against EV industry would have been more than their move to FM and they may not have even succeeded.
Too many examples of modern capitalism winning the battles over rules, regulations, laws hindering the pursuit of profits. This cannot end well.
"Sometimes the alert tone is followed by a few seconds of digitally encoded data."
This
Actually, I've heard some test broadcasts where the alert tone is not heard. But the digital tones are. And the "This is a test of the EAS system ...." message scrolls across the TV.
I'm not denying that what ESPN are doing is incredibly annoying (as is all TV advertising imo), but if the US is relying on a specific sound to grab people's attention in the event of an emergency, I feel like they've already failed. Every other country seems to manage without this system... maybe the whole thing needs a rethink.
Mainly because we have come accustomed to the fact that when we hear that tone, there is some type of important information about to be broadcast. The tone was used when Kennedy was shot, when the Twin Towers were struck, at every life changing episode in our lives since the Cold War. My generation, when we heard that signal, were ready to grab hold of loved ones and say goodbye since we just knew the Russians had launched their nuclear arsenal at us.
The tone has alerted us to tornadoes, flash floods, blizzards, and wild fires. It serves a purpose.
It's been a multi-generational part of our lives.
The signal comes over all cell phones, tv, radio, satellite audio services, and I wouldn't doubt that it's in the works to come over any Bluetooth device set up for audio (kinda scary if your printer starts talking to you.).
"Or simply add into legislation that the maximum fine will increase every year by inflation ot 2%, whatever is higher, so that maximum fines keep up"
Has anybody else had the temerity to do something like this? A lot of laws that cover this sort of thing have only been put in place as a warning, not expecting they'd ever be invoked. Now that some fool thought that it would be a good idea to ascend to this level of crassness, ratchet the penalties way up since they likely haven't been looked at since the law went into effect.
The problem is the US has become a purely fascist country where anything and everything is allowed by the corporations as long as they turn a profit and employ a handful of people.
The days when the USG actually controlled what was allowed in the business markets are long gone; there isn't a politician left down south who hasn't been bought off by lobbyists and promises of a fat pay cheque after they retire from politics.
Sadly, things aren't far behind here in Canada, with an ever-increasing number of corporate abuse cases being let off with a slap on the wrist.
The only real solution is to do away with this idea that corporate management is untouchable, and hold them personally responsible for the legality of the business operations, with hefty personal fines and jail time for violations. But it'll never happen.
The corporations already bought the government.
As you say, it's only beginning in State 51. It might be advisable to start campaigning against the reintroduction of corporate-colonial administration in the west, or you can sourly lament the loss of representative government on here.
You guys at least have the NDP to check against Liberal and Con fuckery.
"Since corporations are now considered "people", let's execute ESPN."
I'd really hate a precedent to be set that considers capital punishment for this sort of offense. Not that it would be carried out. An unrepentant murderer sentenced to death rarely has to worry about a date with the executioner.
I have had this sort of thing happen at a live football game. During the pre-game action a brief excerpt of the tone was played with a lot of graphics on the jumbotron to indicate an offensive "storm coming".
It was startling even though it was a clear sunny Saturday in September.
That alert tone is very unique and only gets used when something important is going on.
Someone may have already brought up that the cellular alert system has had its share of problems with mapping alerts to coverage areas.
These folks need to be punished.
And we need to vastly expand the ability of agencies to impose meaningful penalties on corporate violators, especially large ones. F'rinstance, statutes could set the maximum fine as a percentage of the offender's assets, with a floor for the maximum fine to deter gamesmanship.
The FCC may be up in arms over ESPN abusing their emergency alert tones, but WHAT ABOUT "GUMMY" (a portmanteu of 'gummint' and 'mommy') ABUSING THE EMERGENCE ALERT SYSTEM ITSELF?
Hurricanes and tornadoes notwithstanding, I got REALLY SICK AND TIRED of WAY TOO MANY "OVER-CAUTIOUS" FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS in San Diego and LA-area counties during THUNDERSTORM SEASON. For ONE thing, it interrupted me watching "The Five" on Fox while I eat lunch. For another, it was TWICE THE VOLUME of the programming. For YET another, NOTHING HAPPENED and the warnings were SO often it was like "The Boy Who Cried 'WOLF'!!!"
But the WORST are those "Amber Alerts" (missing kids) sent to people watching CABLE TV identifying CAR LICENSE PLATES, probably because DAD was late returning kids from visitation to some MEAL-TICKET MOMMY the custodial parent! I mean, SERIOUSLY, what makes THAT an "EMERGENCY" for 5-10 MILLION PEOPLE???
How about we punish the people triggering FALSE "EMERGENCIES" INSTEAD???
I've seen plenty of memes from the UK regarding something VERY similar...
"Hurricanes and tornadoes notwithstanding, I got REALLY SICK AND TIRED of WAY TOO MANY "OVER-CAUTIOUS" FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS in San Diego and LA-area counties during THUNDERSTORM SEASON. "
If they don't put them out and something happens, some mob will file suit against whatever government agency would put that sort of warning out. While judges should toss those cases out, with prejudice, they go forward wasting everybody's time. Weather prediction isn't an exact science and broadcast areas can include locations where something like a flash flood is something to look out for as well as places unlikely to ever have one. After watching the tornado chasing shows, whether there will be a tornado or not can be very hit as miss. It's still not a bad idea to warn people that conditions are looking like there could be some. Where are the kids, is the storm cellar ready to go, door propped open, tell the boss to stick it where the monkey put its nut and go home early? I get it that it can be annoying, but annoyed is better than grievously injured or dead.
The Amber Alert crap is useless 99.9999% of the time. If I'm out driving, I'm looking out for The Man, not some white Toyota Camry. The messages on the road signs probably took ages to be put up and the whole thing might have already been resolved hours since when it's discovered that one parent said 3pm and the other heard 5pm so they are still at the park/beach/arcade.
Worse up here. People were turning off the amber alerts on their phones and so the police only use the maximum Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear war alert that can't be disabled
The alert system is per province (=state) but we have 'states' that take 2 days to drive across.
So a dad doesn't return a kid from a visit by 5:00 and the neighbouring province, where the mom lives, issues an alert.
Except because it's so disruptive it takes hours of permissions and sign-offs to issue, so at 2:00am every phone a 1000km and a ferry ride away sounds an alarm.
Can't wait for an actual earthquake and everyone ignores it.
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