Public television stations, by virtue of their community-based mission and wide distribution throughout the United States, provide an ideal platform to provide a backup method of transmitting Wireless Enabled Alert (WEA) messages, should the primary link to FEMA become unavailable.
All stations in the U.S. with valid Non-Commercial Educational licenses who receive programming from HD-01 transponder 24 are required by the FCC to carry WEA messages over-the-air as part of their broadcast stream.
The PBS WARN team has designed a highly redundant system to enable qualifying stations to meet this FCC mandate. The NTIA grant allows us to provide the necessary equipment to every station in the country.
In addition, to improve the reliability of the signal, the WARN program allows stations to apply for sub-grants that fund power backup and hardening for their broadcast chain. If you are a PBS member station and would like additional details about the WARN project or wish to apply for a grant, please visit PBS Connect. (Password is required; only PBS stations and affiliates may access the site.) Applications for funding are being accepted until January 31, 2013, and all projects must be completed by August 31, 2013.
Download guidelines for grant funding. (197.1 KB)
.
PBS WARN Contacts:
Dana Golub, Executive Director (dgolub@pbs.org, 919-834-2259)
Aaron Silverman, Communications Director (amsilverman@pbs.org, 703-739-5054)
Nick Doshi, Senior Broadcast Engineer (ndoshi@pbs.org, 703-739-5490)
Susana Lopez, Senior Administrative Manager (smlopez@pbs.org, 703-739-5268)
