from Inside Radio http://www.insideradio.com/Article.asp?id=1762296&spid=33231
Two states back Alert FM.
The New Jersey and Missouri State Broadcasters Associations have joined Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee in supporting Alert FM’s text message-based EAS distribution system. It uses FM stations’ RDBS to deliver emergency messages to FM-enabled cell phones.
New Jersey Broadcasters Association president/CEO Paul Rotella says, “In any emergency, FM radio’s single-point to multi-point transmission assures the delivery of critical information to an infinite number of FM-enabled devices simultaneously -- a huge advantage over wireless broadband’s point-to-point system which overloads and jams in that scenario.”
Alert FM has support of more than 60 members of Congress, who believe it’s a low-cost way for cell phone companies to meet federal requirements for distributing emergency alerts. But FCC chair Julius Genachowski has so far preferred a more “technology neutral” approach, giving mobile companies options to meet that goal.
“The activation of the standard FM receiver chip that already resides in the majority of mobile phones in use in the U.S. will save lives right now,” Missouri Broadcasters Association president/CEO Don Hicks says. “By putting Alert FM into operation, radio can provide an immediate and highly effective emergency alerting system that optimizes the existing FM infrastructure to reach targeted or widespread groups of people with life-saving messages.”