Breaking News
Posted on Wed, Jul. 11, 2007
Tower fall victims identified
By BENITA Y. WILLIAMS
The Kansas City Star
Two men killed in a fall from a tower in Douglas County on Tuesday have been identified as Jerry Case, 54, of Kansas City, and Kevin Keeling, 33, of Independence.
Case was the owner of Structural Inspections Inc. of Blue Springs. Keeling was his employee. The company had been hired to install broadcast equipment on a 1,000-foot communications tower south of Kansas 10 near Eudora, Kan.
Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Kari Wempe said a preliminary investigation found that the men were in a bucket being cabled up to an approximate elevation of 500 to 800 feet when the cable failed, sending the men and the bucket to the ground. It is unknown what caused the cable to fail.
The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Wichita is conducting an investigation that could take up to six months to complete. Jack Shaffer, an OSHA response team leader, said Structural Inspections had no inspection history with OSHA and no violations on file.
Dispatchers received the 911 call about 9:30 a.m. Paramedics, who were on the scene when deputies arrived, pronounced the victims dead there.
The tower is owned by TFM Comm Inc. of Topeka. The company issued a written statement Tuesday expressing their sympathy.
Structural Inspections was hired by television station KSHB to install new Nextel equipment on the tower as part of a federally-mandated broadcast equipment conversion that is happening throughout the industry, said Craig Allison, the station’s vice president and general manager.
The television station uses the structure as a relay tower and to transmit live shots from the Lawrence area.
To reach Benita Y. Williams, call 816-234-7714 or send e-mail to bwilliams@kcstar.com
AMBER ALERT TASK FORCE MEETS IN LINCOLN
A special Amber Alert taskforce meeting was held on Friday, June 1, to address the many re-occuring problems with the conveyance of Amber Alerts to the radio and television first responders. The meeting was chaired by Perre Neilan, Deputy Chief of the Nebraska State Attorney General's office and was held at the Tier One Bank Building. Representatives from several radio and television stations also attended the meeting which included the NBA, Department of Roads, the National Weather Service, Emergency Management, Nebraska State Police, and Nebraska Educational Television. Stations expressed their problems with the way the last Amber Alert was sent out to the media from the NSP, and the ongoing quality issues of the alerts. The mission of the task force was to try to alleviate the ongoing problems/issues and to try to deliver a better on air product to the listener/viewer, in a more expedient manner. A point of discussion was whether to automate the delivery of the Amber Alert. Vern Killion, KRVN, Lexington, suggested that the Amber Alert committee might consider a new piece of equipment which would alleviate many of the quality and timing issues. The task force also recommended that the Amber Alerts be moved over to the National Weather Service in that they have the ability to provide 24/7 issuance of an Amber Alert. Another recommendation also included having the originator of the Amber Alert be able to hit an "end of message" which would eliminate the amount of "dead air" at the conclusion of an Amber message. Currently the Amber Alert window is of a two-minute duration, and by making this change to End of Message, the originator would be able to better control his/her use of time to fit the needs of the particular Amber Alert. In the event of the new equipment, possible funding for such may be available from the Department of Roads. These recommendations will be presented to the Full Amber Alert Committee meeting to be held on Thursday, June 14 in Lincoln. Broadcasters who have not already weighed in on this issue are encouraged to contact the NBA office to do so.
The FCC is rethinking radio's rulebook.
It's looking at requiring stations to be staffed 24-hours a day to avoid late-night and weekend EAS glitches. The tradeoff would be a more relaxed main studio rule. The FCC is also considering a requirement that all public files be posted electronically on a station's website.
FCC Releases Second R&O on EAS
Washington - May 31, 2007 - The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Second Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking relating to the Emergency Alert System (EAS). According to a release from the FCC, the order promotes the development of fully digital next generation technologies and delivery systems that will better serve the American public.
The order now requires EAS participants to accept messages using the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), no later than 180 days after FEMA announces its adoption of standards in each case. The Society of Broadcast Engineers and the Partnership for Public Warning have both endorsed the implementation of CAP with EAS. CAP will allow the encoded data to carry additional information that has so far been relegated to only the audio portion of an EAS message. Many text-capable devices are in use today, and many TV stations only provide a visual display of the encoded message, which currently is often vague.
he FCC's further notice seeks comments on how to deliver EAS alerts, emergency and public safety information to non-English speakers and those who are hard of hearing. The notice also commits to the adoption of a final order within six months.
The order also requires terrestrial EAS participants to transmit state and locally targeted EAS alerts that are originated by governors or their designees. The EAS currently only requires participants to replay messages from the President. The further notice seeks comment on whether participants should be required to deliver EAS alerts originated by local, county, tribal, or other state governmental entities.
The order states the Commission's intention to ensure that the EAS network is prepared to operate as intended. The further notice seeks comment on several possible means for achieving that goal, including additional testing, station certification, and post hoc assessments of how well the system worked after an EAS warning has been triggered.
All five commissioners issued statements on the action. Commissioner Copps stated that he believes that CAP is a good step to have been taken, but more needs to be done.
Radio magazine observation: Adding a requirement for EAS participants to carry state-level messages appears to have some merit, and creates a statewide distribution intended to emulate the national system.
Unfortunately, the nationwide and many statewide systems are not as fully developed as many government leaders believe them to be. The FCC appears to acknowledge this in its statements.
Taking this approach one step further, the FCC seeks comment on requiring participation at regional and local levels. To do so eliminates the voluntary nature of EAS as it currently stands. If this step is enacted, the systems will require significant attention to train the users and ensure that the system is not abused or misused.
EB Docket No. 04-296
Vern Killion, W5UYF
Technical Advisor
KRVN/NRRA
NE State SECC-EAS
Submitted by: Mike Shane Immediate Past Chairman SBE 74 Posted July 11, 2007
A special web address has been developed for AMBERAlert information.
Go to www.NEAMBER.org and click
the Current Alert button for the latest official AMBER Alert information.
The NBA is requesting the official AMBER sounder be used when broadcasting
current alert information. The sounder may be obtained as a .wav file at:
http://www.tmcentury.com.
Vern Killion, W5UYF
DOE KRVN/NRRA
NE State SECC-EAS
<vkillion@krvn.com>