Broadcasters Lay the Foundation for Hurricane Preparedness

As the United States braces for the start of what promises to be a forceful 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, Global Security Systems, LLC (GSS), today announced that broadcasters in the Gulf Coast region have agreed to improve broadcast and communications infrastructures for emergency alerts and messaging. Broadcaster associations in Alabama and Florida join the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters in supporting deployment of an FM-based digital alert and messaging platform with ALERT FM.

Following a presidential directive to improve the nation's emergency alert capability, these state associations of broadcasters are among the first to encourage the use of ALERT FM, which allows emergency managers to push lifesaving information to first responders and citizens before, during and after an emergency. ALERT FM is based on an existing FM infrastructure that incorporates Radio Data System (RDS) technology to send digital information using conventional FM radio broadcasts. Targeted alerts and messages are delivered by satellite to FM transmission towers and can be received on any device equipped with an FM chip. In the future, a wide variety of devices including cell phones, pagers and specialized receivers, will be able to receive the emergency alerts.

"Forecasters continue to warn us that we are in a very active cycle of hurricane activity in the Gulf Coast region," said Robert R. Latham, Jr., former executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. "Hurricane Katrina reminded us that total reliance on traditional means of public alert and messaging will result in an inadequate or nonexistent supply of critical lifesaving information for the general public and emergency personnel."

According to weather forecasters, the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should be very active with a projected nine hurricanes and the possibility that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast. Predictions for the season include 17 named storms this year, five of them major hurricanes. Additionally, the probability of a major hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast this year is 74 percent, compared with the average of 52 percent over the past century.

"Local broadcasters in Alabama will have the ability to play an active role in protecting their communities by using the ALERT FM system," said Sharon Tinsley, executive director of Alabama Association of Broadcasters. "We encourage them to participate and cement their commitment to supporting our first responders, businesses and citizens."

On the heels of recovering from hurricanes and tornadoes that devastated the Gulf Coast region, broadcaster support is critical to enabling state and local governments to strengthen its communications infrastructure for first responders and citizens. FM broadcasters that participate in the program will get the RDS technology at no cost to the station along with the ability to transmit an array of non-emergency information, including song titles and artists, call letters, slogans, weather, traffic or other information to listeners, while reinforcing their public service commitment.


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Photo by Richard Masoner. Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0