§ 11.55   EAS operation during a State or Local Area emergency.

   (a) The EAS may be activated at the State and Local Area levels by EAS
   Participants at their discretion for day-to-day emergency situations posing
   a threat to life and property. Examples of natural emergencies which may
   warrant  state  EAS  activation  are:  Tornadoes,  floods, hurricanes,
   earthquakes, heavy snows, icing conditions, widespread fires, etc. Man-made
   emergencies warranting state EAS activation may include: Toxic gas leaks or
   liquid spills, widespread power failures, industrial explosions, and civil
   disorders.

   (1)  DBS  providers shall pass through all EAS messages aired on local
   television  broadcast  stations  carried  by  DBS  providers under the
   Commission's broadcast signal carriage rules to subscribers receiving those
   channels.

   (2) SDARS licensees and DBS providers may participate in EAS at the state
   and local level and make their systems capable of receiving and transmitting
   state and local level EAS messages on all channels. If an SDARS licensee or
   DBS provider is not capable of receiving and transmitting state and local
   EAS message on all channels, it must inform its subscribers, on its website
   and in writing on an annual basis, of which channels are and are not capable
   of supplying state and local messages.

   (b) EAS operations must be conducted as specified in State and Local Area
   EAS Plans. The plans must list all authorized entities participating in the
   State or Local Area EAS.

   (c) Immediately upon receipt of a State or Local Area EAS message that has
   been formatted in the EAS Protocol, EAS Participants participating in the
   State or Local Area EAS must do the following:

   (1) State Relay (SR) sources monitor the State Relay Network or follow the
   State EAS plan for instructions from the State Primary (SP) source.

   (2) Local Primary (LP) sources monitor the Local Area SR sources or follow
   the State EAS plan for instructions.

   (3) Participating National (PN) sources monitor the Local Area LP sources
   for instructions.

   (4) EAS Participants participating in the State or Local Area EAS must
   discontinue normal programming and follow the procedures in the State and
   Local Area Plans. Analog and digital television broadcast stations must
   transmit  all  EAS  announcements visually and aurally as specified in
   § 11.51(a) through (e) and 73.1250(h) of this chapter, as applicable; analog
   cable  systems, digital cable systems, and wireless cable systems must
   transmit  all  EAS  announcements visually and aurally as specified in
   § 11.51(g) and (h); and DBS providers must transmit all EAS announcements
   visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(j). EAS Participants providing
   foreign language programming should transmit all EAS announcements in the
   same language as the primary language of the EAS Participant.

   (5) Upon completion of the State or Local Area EAS transmission procedures,
   resume normal programming until receipt of the cue from the SR or LP sources
   in your Local Area. At that time begin transmitting the common emergency
   message received from the above sources.

   (6) Resume normal operations upon conclusion of the message.

   (7)  The  times  of  the  above EAS actions must be entered in the EAS
   Participants' records as specified in § § 11.35(a) and 11.54(a)(3).

   (8)  Use  of  the  EAS  codes or Attention Signal automatically grants
   rebroadcast authority as specified in § 11.54(b).

   (d) Immediately upon receipt of a State or Local Area EAS message that has
   been formatted in the Common Alerting Protocol, EAS Participants must do the
   following:

   (1) EAS Participants participating in the State or Local Area EAS must
   follow the procedures for processing such messages in the State and Local
   Area Plans.

   (2) Analog and digital television broadcast stations must transmit all EAS
   announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(a) through (e) and
   73.1250(h) of this chapter, as applicable; analog cable systems, digital
   cable  systems,  and  wireless  cable  systems  must  transmit all EAS
   announcements visually and aurally as specified in § 11.51(g) and (h); and
   DBS providers must transmit all EAS announcements visually and aurally as
   specified  in  § 11.51(j).  EAS Participants providing foreign language
   programming should transmit all EAS announcements in the same language as
   the primary language of the EAS Participant.

   (3) Resume normal operations upon conclusion of the message.

   (4)  The  times  of  the  above EAS actions must be entered in the EAS
   Participants' records as specified in § § 11.35(a) and 11.54(a)(3).

   [ 59 FR 67092 , Dec. 28, 1994, as amended at  63 FR 29666 , June 1, 1998;  65 FR 21658 , Apr. 24, 2000;  67 FR 18511 , Apr. 16, 2002;  70 FR 71037 , Nov. 25,
   2005;  71 FR 76220 , Dec. 20, 2006;  72 FR 62135 , Nov. 2, 2007;  77 FR 16706 ,
   Mar. 22, 2012]

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