I was fortunate to do my show from the new FEMA emergency broadcast facility on Tuesday. The facility allows for WWL Radio and other stations like it to be a part of the federal government’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, better known as IPAWS. Since 2015 FEMA has been dedicated to modernizing IPAWS, taking an all-hazards approach that will allow WWL to remain on air and communicate accurate and vital information during a hurricane, chemical spill, or terrorist attack. I spoke to Antwane Johnson, of the IPAWS Division of FEMA, the man most responsible for overhauling this critical broadcasting tool.
How does your tenure at the Department of Defense dovetail into your current role with FEMA?
When I arrived at FEMA, I was able to recognize the importance of our primary entry point stations, and radio stations have participated in the IPAWS program since the 1960s. These stations are so critical to the nation from a communications perspective that I added them to the “critical infrastructure of interest” list that is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.
WWL’s listening audience really relies on the station and our signal. Talk to me about the importance of radio and how it fits into what y’all are trying to accomplish.
There’s no question that radio has been a staple within the community when it comes to reliable communications in very extreme conditions. When FEMA anticipates severe storms or other types of events, one of the things that we look at is the communications infrastructure. Of all of the communications that we've assessed, we concluded that radio is the most reliable, most redundant and most trusted source of information when it comes to communicating critical information to people in extreme circumstances. The relationship that we have with WWL goes back to the 1990s.
One of the things that I think is really important is that the federal government is dedicated to maintaining these facilities. It's very important on the front end, to build these facilities, but equally if not more important on the back end, right?
It's one thing to build them, but you have to sustain the capability long term. We expect these facilities to be in place and fully functional at a moment's notice for the next 20 to 25 years.
There must be a sustainment program that is able to make sure that everything remains in operational condition and that these facilities can be operational at a moment's notice. This facility has to be ready to go within ten minutes. We've done some testing in the past, and we've been able to activate these facilities in less than two minutes.