FCC Announces ETRS Form One Deadline, Adopts New EAS Alert Code

posted on 8.12.2024

The FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has announced an Oct. 4 deadline for broadcast stations to file the annual Emergency Alert System Test Reporting System (ETRS) Form One.

While no national test of EAS is scheduled this year, the requirement to file Form One must still be met.

Form One is the annual update to the FCC of a station's EAS information such as designation, monitoring assignments, facility location, equipment type, contact information, etc.

All EAS participants such as AM, FM, and TV stations must file Form One, as do Low Power FM stations (LPFM), Class D non-commercial educational FM stations, and stations that are silent pursuant to a grant of Special Temporary Authority.

Stations can access ETRS by visiting the ETRS page of the FCC's website at: https://www.fcc.gov/general/eas-test-reporting-system.

New EAS Code Adopted

As TAB previewed earlier this summer, the FCC has now adopted a new EAS event Code for missing or abducted individuals over the age of 17 from states, territories, or native tribal lands. The new event code does not become effective until 12 months after the report and order's publication in the Federal Register.

In a media release, the FCC said more than 188,000 people went missing in 2023 who fall outside of the criteria for AMBER Alerts.

The new alert code, dubbed the Ashanti Alert, was primarily adopted to benefit tribal communities, where Native Americans "are at a disproportionate risk of violence, murder, or vanishing."

According to FBI statistics, in 2023, there were 10,650 reported missing American Indian/Alaska Native persons of which 3,269 were 18 years old or older.

The FCC said the new code could "help mobilize public responses to missing Black persons who make up roughly 35% of missing persons over 18 years old despite being 12% of the U.S. population.

Stations are familiar with the "CAE" event code signifying a Child Abduction Emergency, otherwise known as an AMBER Alert.

The new "MEP" alert code for missing and endangered persons who do not meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert will enable a more rapid and coordinated response to these incidents.

Questions? Contact TAB's Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.

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