US Cable Support → W.O.W. > Flash flood warnings 50+ miles away, over and over again

Flash flood warnings 50+ miles away, over and over again

I get it that there is an Emergency Alert System that causes WOW to interrupt every channel with a "barker" message multiple times over many hours. I also get it that, e.g., people in the path of tornados and other severe weather need to receive near real-time alerts in every way possible. Tonight, though, and for the n'th time, my TV viewing was interrupted numerous times by several-minute interruptions of the sound to warn me that there was a flash-flood warning ~50 miles to my east. Please fix this, WOW! These "flash flood warnings" are not as dire as you seem to believe, especially when they are so far distant.

I suspect there might be responses to the effect that I'm putting my own enjoyment of TV programs ahead of the survival of people threatened by severe weather. I respectfully suggest that distant "flash flood warnings" (which seem to be the major culprit) don't qualify.

WOW! does not control these EAS alerts. They are sent out by the National Weather Service through our system. We can not alter or stop these messages, as they are an FCC requirement.

Why do these announcements have to be so loud? I know it's an alert needing to be heard, but they're close to blowing out my expensive speakers. And the cat freaks out and hides under the sofa for hours.

My three year old son covers his years and runs to the bathroom because it's so much louder than normal show sound.

I think just responding that WOW doesn't control these messages is sort of a cop-out. Has WOW actively been advocating for your customers (i.e., us)? Has WOW made efforts to influence the FCC and/or NWS to address these issues?

Who controls the volume level (FCC, NWS, or WOW)? Who controls the warning content, frequency and length? Who controls the targeting of warnings to a specific audience? At least for the latter two, it sounds like it is NWS. Currently at the top of their www.weather.gov web site there's a link to a user survey. It took about 20 minutes to get to the end of their badly formatted survey, and none of their questions came close to this issue, but at the end there was space for general comments. I left a comment similar to my message that started this thread. I suggest that others might consider doing the same.

That was one the things that I did not like about WOW when I used to have it back then on the HD channels they did not cut them off. And it was that same flash flood stuff from areas that where miles away.

I've been appalled by audio level differences between channels, so hearing some EAS announcement with ridiculous clipping has never been a surprise.

Audio continues to get the same "good enough" attention it got 40 years ago when I was in broadcasting (AM/FM/TV). Even worse on the SD channels I switch between, I'm sure.

I'm sure the EAS system, like the old EBS system, works weather alerts at the COUNTY level. You usually get everything inside your county, regardless how silly it is. Only 15 miles away? Maybe it's better now than then.

Bill_MI - have you adjusted the Dynamic Range on your boxes?

The Dynamic Range setting adjusts the audio spectrum for digital programming. Dynamic Range refers to the difference between the highest audio peaks and the lowest ones. Action movies, for instance, will use the full dynamic range while news programs will not. The Dynamic Range preference lets you control the volume of the high audio peaks. Select either:

-Wide - Plays the entire audio dynamic range, including and highest and lowest sounds. This setting is appropriate for audio enthusiasts.
-Medium - Slightly lowers the higher volumes.
-Narrow - Dramatically lowers the higher volumes.

There's nothing you can do these eas alerts are controled by a whats called a endec and are required no matter what. as soon as they receive a signal they completely override the broadcast to display their message. There is nothing you can do to override it and the areas are set also by the nws (I think).

Hi HSDays, I'll guess the DTAs I use are "as broadcast", probably same as "Wide". There's also a chance, since I'm listening in mono, some spacial phase effects are causing the combined L+R to get a bit of canceling on some channels. I'm not loosing sleep over it... I see very little TV and will crank it up when I have to.

My weather bug does the same thing. Let's hope that land goes under water soon.

it has to be loud to get people's attention. It's not as loud as tornado sirens or a Jason aldean concert though.