RE Philadelphia emergency text messaging system [Telecom]

I've been hesitating to comment on this because I was not > sure, but as luck would have it my cable company ran a > EAS test last night during prime time and I was able to > switch channels to verify that major local broadcasters > and cable channels alike were being interrupted during > the test. > > I had thought that cable operators were required to put > EAS alerts on *all* channels. My local cable operator > (Comcast) certainly does it that way.

That's the default requirement: cable operators *are* required to put EAS alerts on all channels. However, this requirement applies only to EAS alerts applicable to the geographic area in which the cable system is located. For EAS purposes, these areas are typically defined as

1/9th of a county, resulting in a 3x3 grid.

If a station and a cable system are in the same geographic area (such as Philadelphia, from whence this thread originated), station licensees and cable companies can enter into private agreements under which the cable company will omit the EAS for that station. Cable companies are not required to enter into such agreements, although they often do so if their equipment can provide the option.

In geographic areas outside of a station's immediate area, such agreements obviously don't make sense. No station could possibly devote airtime to every EAS alert in its DMA.

In your case, Blacksburg is in Montgomery County, which is in the Danville/Roanoke/Lynchburg DMA, so I assume your cable company gets local stations from Roanoke and Lynchburg. You're definitely not in the same EAS area (or even the same county) as either Roanoke or Lynchburg.

But Cox in Roanoke might have agreements with the Roanoke stations.

Neal McLain