FCC Retreats from Prohibition on EAS Alert Text-to-Speech Conversions

In late April, the FCC retracted its recent rules that would have prohibited live broadcast text-to-speech conversions. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as broadcast and technical groups, had objected to that part of the FCC’s Fifth Report and Order, saying that less useful information would be passed to the public by automated equipment. The Commission was concerned that automatic text-to-speech conversion could misinterpret emergency information. Text-to-speech conversion can be used by stations implementing CAP technology due for adoption by the June 30th deadline.