Broadcasters: Mandatory disaster reporting would misdirect resources

The radio industry is giving a cool response to a Federal Communications Commission proposal that would require participation in the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) during emergencies. In addition to turning that voluntary program into a mandated one, the rulemaking proposal (PS Dockets No. 21-346) adopted in January also considers forcing stations to begin reporting outages to the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS). In a series of filings, broadcasters say focusing on regulatory filings during an emergency would do more harm than good by taking the focus off the critical job of informing the public.

“In a nutshell, while clearly well-intentioned, the proposals will likely hinder broadcasters’ ability to serve the public rather than help it,” says the National Association of Broadcasters.

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