FCC Releases Spanish-Language Emergency Alert System Handbook

The Federal Communications Commission translated its first Emergency Alert System handbook into Spanish, starting with the one for TV broadcasters.

It is now available on the FCC's Web site, according to a spokesman for the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and it will also be available in print form upon request.

The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council complained that the handbooks were only in English, saying that not changing that could endanger Spanish-speaking people and potentially non-Spanish speakers, as well.

The FCC responded that the translations were in the works.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.