Kleberg County, City of Kingsville and Kenedy County Implement ALERT FM as an Emergency Notification Platform
Residents, businesses, schools, and first responders to benefit
Kingsville, Texas-April 1, 2011- Kleberg County, Emergency Management Coordinator Tomas Sanchez, and Chief of Police Rick Torres, announced today that Kleberg County, City of Kingsville and Kenedy County have successfully implemented ALERT FM- FM radio-based emergency notification system as a city-wide or county-wide notification platform.
ALERT FM will allow the emergency management team to send targeted information directly to residents, schools, businesses, and/or first responders. Information might include severe weather warnings, school closings, road closures, and other emergency information.
“We are excited to be using ALERT FM. It is a great asset to the city and both counties,” Sanchez said. “The system will greatly benefit the residents of both counties and allow them to get up-to-date information from my office as well as the National Weather Service, Corpus Christi and Brownsville.”
ALERT FM is unique compared to other notification systems because it delivers messages using the data subcarrier of local FM radio transmission towers. The use of this pre-existing network of FM towers provides overlapping signal coverage for the area. FM stations currently participating in the ALERT FM network for the counties are KBUC (102.1), KEDT (90.3), KLTG (96.5), KUKA (105.9) and KKPN (102.3). These overlapping stations ensure message distribution over a large “FM footprint” which gives the city and both counties the potential to reach the 31,016 residents in the counties in mere seconds.
“County Judge Louis E. "Bud" Turcotte, III (Kenedy County) and County Judge Juan M. Escobar (Kleberg County) have supported this project from day one”, said Sanchez.
To receive this potentially life-saving information, residents and businesses will need purchase an ALERT FM receiver. Receivers are portable, light-weight, and easy to program. They can be purchased at Roy’s Hobbies and Electronics in Kingsville for around $40 with no recurring service.
“ALERT FM provides valuable information to residents and businesses of Kleberg and Kenedy Counties no matter if they are at home or work or traveling throughout the neighboring coastal counties,” Jim Lowery, general manager of Global Security Systems, LLC (manufacturer of ALERT FM).
For more information visit www.alertfm.com.
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About ALERT FM
ALERT FM is owned and operated by Global Security Systems, LLC (GSS) of Jackson, Miss. It is a personal alert and messaging system that enables state and local government and private sector officials to create and send emergency information to targeted recipients. Potential information includes severe weather warnings, homeland security notices, hurricane evacuation instructions, utility notices, plant or school closings, employee notifications and traffic alerts. First responders, school officials, residents, and businesses can receive this information based on geographic or organizational groupings through specially designed ALERT FM receivers or any device equipped with a standard FM chip. ALERT FM has been implemented at the university, state, county and multi-county levels. More than 40 million people in 14 states have access to ALERT FM technology.
Kleberg_Kenedy AFM announcement release.pdf (75.90 kb)