WASHINGTON, D.C.—Public media stations in California, New York, Oregon and Texas will receive a total of up to $1.8 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to upgrade their equipment to provide enhanced emergency alerting.
The awards take the number grants awarded in the first round of funding for the Next Generation Warning System (NGWS) to 21. Funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the grant program is providing $34 million to public media stations to upgrade equipment and receive training to enhance emergency alerts, including the ability to TV stations to use ATSC 3.0 and radio stations to deploy comparable digitalk radio technologies, CPB said.
“Public media stations have long played a vital role in emergency alerting in communities across the country,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “The Next Generation Warning System grant program helps public media organizations, especially in rural areas, replace and upgrade their infrastructure so that they can continue to keep their communities safe.”
In 2022, FEMA selected CPB to establish and administer the NGWS grant progra
In June, CPB launched a Request for Applications (RFA) portal on the CPB website for a second round of funding. The total amount of NGWS grant funds available in this round is $48 million, approved in Fiscal Year 2023.
“FEMA is committed to building resilience by rapidly disseminating emergency communications to the public through diverse integrated pathways,” said FEMA IPAWS director Manny Centeno. “FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) provides a suite of tools and resources for local authorities to effectively send emergency communications to the public. We continue developing the Next Generation Warning System concept as we improve continuity and leverage new technologies, such as ATSC 3.0, that can reach the public wherever they are.”
The most recent recipients include:
- Northern California Educational TV - KIXE-TV, Redding, Calif., up to $857,105 to upgrade the overall transmission signal, increasing emergency alert access. KIXE-TV covers rural Northern California.
- St. Lawrence Valley Educational Television Council - WPBS-TV, Watertown, N.Y., up to $276,444 to replace an aging transmitter, making the station fully ATSC 3.0 ready and providing a stronger signal and reaching more communities with emergency alerting in this rural area, from the Adirondack Mountains to the St. Lawrence River.
- Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs/KWSO-FM, Warm Springs Ore., up to $158,749 to install and upgrade emergency alert equipment at the radio station and towers and to establish an alternate transmitter site in case of emergency.
- Texas A&M University - KAMU TV/FM, College Station, Texas, up to $486,214 to improve the resiliency of broadcast signal origination and boost redundancy of the station’s transmission and related emergency alerting in the Brazos Valley.
Of the 21 stations to receive NGWS grants so far from the first round of funding, six are in Alaska, three in New York and three in Texas.
For more information visit www.cpb.org.
