WASHINGTON, D.C. — The PBS Member serving the Plattsburgh, N.Y.; Burlington, Vt.; and, indirectly, the Montréal metropolitan area is one of two additional grant recipients of Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds designed to give the operations cash for enhanced emergency alerting upgrades.
Mountain Lake Public Telecommunications Council, which operates WCFE-TV in Plattsburgh as “Mountain Lake PBS,” will receive up to $218,586 to replace aging equipment with NextGen TV-ready equipment. It will also be able to use the funds to buy new ATSC 3.0 licenses and testing and monitoring equipment.
At the same time, Lynn Canal Broadcasting-licensed KHNS-FM 102.3, serving Skagway, Alaska, is eligible for up to $88,426 in CPB grants to incorporate digital audio and increase the redundancy and reliability of their broadcast station’s emergency alerting. This includes an independent broadcast from Skagway if the KHNS studio and transmitter in Haines, Alaska, are compromised.
Lastly, Rainbird Community Broadcasting Corporation‘s KRBD-FM 105.3 in Ketchikan, Ak., serving the Alexander Archipelago of southeast Alaska, may receive up to $95,185 for a new transmitter, broadcasting equipment, and generator that will enable the station to stay on air in case of an emergency.
The 24 stations to receive NGWS grants so far include eight in Alaska, four in New York and three in Texas.
“Public media stations have long played a vital role in emergency alerting in communities across the country,” said CPB President/CEO Patricia Harrison. “The Next Generation Warning System grant program helps public media organizations, especially in rural areas, replace and upgrade their infrastructure so that they can continue to keep their communities safe.”
In 2022, FEMA selected CPB to establish and administer the NGWS grant program to help public media stations across the country create a more resilient and secure public alerting system. The program is providing $34 million in FY 2022 funding to public media stations across the country to upgrade their equipment and receive training to enhance alerting and warning capabilities, including the ability to use ATSC 3.0 broadcast technology and comparable digital broadcast technology for radio stations. The program prioritizes public media stations serving rural, tribal, and underserved communities, and has been funded to provide an additional $48 million for FY 2023.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded CPB a total of $96 million in FY 2022 and FY 2023-appropriated funds to establish and implement the Next Generation Warning System (NGWS) grant program. CPB is administering a competitive grant program for public television and public radio stations to replace and upgrade infrastructure to expand alert, warning, and interoperable communications, creating a more resilient and secure public alerting system.
