The Emergency Alert System at Centro Colegial Cristiano’s WVID-FM in Anasco PR, as long as there was somebody there to personally make it happen. But it was non-functional when the station broadcast automatically and without staff from 7PM to 6AM.
The FCC spelled out the situation, saying, “On April 30, 2012, in response to a complaint, agents from the Enforcement Bureau’s San Juan Office (San Juan Office) inspected the main studio for Station WVID and observed that the Station’s EAS equipment, although operational, was unable to automatically interrupt programming to transmit an EAS message due to the way it was installed. The director for the station admitted and demonstrated to the agents that the EAS equipment was incapable of transmitting an EAS message without a person manually reducing the on-air programming volume down to zero or mute. The director did not know how long the EAS equipment had been in this condition, but he was certain that it had required manual intervention since he became director in September 2011. The director also informed the agents that the Station broadcasts programming 24 hours a day, is manned daily from 6 A.M. to 7 P.M., and is unattended daily from 7 P.M. to 6 A.M. and during lunch and other breaks.”
The problem is that the system must operate automatically if there is nobody on hand to operate it manually.
The fine is $8K, and the station must get the EAS equipment up to snuff and report that it has done so to the San Juan regional office within 30 days, which would be February 23, 2013.
