A request filed by Fort Myers Broadcasting Company seeking a limited waiver of the Commission’s rule addressing operational readiness for Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment at three FM radio stations it owns has been granted.
At the same time, a similar request involving its CBS affiliate in Southwest Florida has been deemed moot. Why?
There’s no longer a need for that waiver, because a proposed facility shift has already happened.
The matter involves WINK-11, the CBS affiliate serving Southwest Florida, and radio siblings WAVV “Wave 101,” WTLQ “97.7 Latino” and WINK-FM 96.9 in the Fort Myers-Naples market.
These media properties have attracted outsized attention in recent days for their cozy relationship with the Jim Schwartzel-led Sun Broadcasting, with sales and programming arrangements across TV and radio stations widening thanks to just-approved transactions involving The E.W. Scripps Co. and Beasley Media Group.
In Washington, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau received a request from FMBC seeking a limited waiver of EAS equipment readiness rules as the company said it seeks to relocate the media properties to a new facility.
That’s no longer an issue for WINK-TV: FMBC on January 12 moved that station’s EAS equipment, negating the need for a waiver.
It’s taking a little longer for FMBC to move the radio stations, and it tells the FCC it plans to relocate WINK-FM and WAVV-FM on a staggered schedule on Tuesday (2/10), and WTLQ-FM on Wednesday, February 11.
Such a move means it must uninstall, pack, move, and reinstall the EAS equipment,
putting it out of EAS readiness compliance by more than the permissible limit of two hours’ time.
FMBC states that it “explored alternative options to avoid an outage, such as securing new EAS equipment, but such options were not available,” while noting that the new location is better protected from flood risk. WINK’s facilities suffered severe flooding and broadcasts were compromised following the September 28, 2022 arrival of Hurricane Ian in Southwest Florida.
Granting of the waivers came with a condition: if there appears to be any risk of an emergency event or a planned EAS test, FMBC must postpone the move.
