As you are aware, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published the technical standards and requirements for CAP-formatted EAS alerts on Sept. 30, 2010, thus triggering the 180-day window for compliance among broadcast stations. Fortunately, for those of us directly involved in the implementation of the new equipment, the FCC waived part 11.56 of its own rules on Nov. 23, and moved the deadline for implementation back to Sept. 30, 2011. In paragraph 10 of its order 10-191, the FCC wrote "It is in the public interest to provide EAS participants with enough time to correctly and efficiently implement the requirements for a next-generation EAS. We are concerned that retaining the 180-day deadline would lead to an unduly rushed, expensive, and likely incomplete process." The agency goes on to say that while it does not anticipate any further waivers, it reserves the right to extend the deadline yet again.

That being said, it is important to note that progress is being made in working out the details of the implementation of CAP, and that the deadline will be here before long. CAP is coming sooner than later, and you should endeavor to learn about it. I'll discuss some of the remaining issues with the implementation of CAP and how they are being addressed.

For starters, let's decode some of the many acronyms that you'll see. CAP stands for Common Alerting Protocol, and version 1.2 of CAP was developed by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). CAP is the digital messaging format to be used in the implementation of IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert Warning System), which is our nation's next-generation emergency warning and alert system. The most important aspects of IPAWS are as follows: