Volume 4
May 2016 Edition
ALERT FM & NextRadio App for Emerg
Notification
“People can improve America’s resilience to extreme weather
by knowing their risk, having quick access to weather forecasts
and making a plan to follow when forecasters issue a warning,”
said Louis W. Uccellini, Ph.D., director of NOAA’s NWS.
“We urge everyone to take a moment this weekend to review
weather safety information, develop or update their family communication plan and check to make sure their emergency kit is
ready for severe weather season.
FEMA offers free, easy-to-use guides, checklists and resources
to help individuals, organizations and communities practice the
simple, specific actions they can take for emergencies relevant
to their area. Examples include:
1. Create a family emergency communication plan. Visit
ready.gov/prepare and download Be Smart. Take Part:
Create Your Family Emergency Communication Plan. Collect the information you need, decide on the places you will
meet in case of an emergency, share the information with
your family and practice your plan.
2. Download the FEMA app for disaster resources, weather
alerts and safety tips. Earlier this month, FEMA launched
a new feature to its free smartphone app that will enable
users to receive push notifications to their devices to remind them to take important steps to prepare their homes
and families for disasters. The app also provides a customizable checklist of emergency supplies, maps of open
shelters and open recovery centers, tips on how to survive
natural and manmade disasters, and weather alerts from
NWS for up to five locations across the nation.
3. Sign up for local text alerts and warnings, get the latest
forecast at weather.gov and download weather apps to
stay aware of worsening weather conditions. Visit ready.
gov/prepare and download Be Smart: Know Your Alerts and
Warnings to learn how sign up for local alerts and weather
apps that are relevant for hazards that affect your area.
4. Gather important documents and keep them in a safe place.
Have all of your personal, medical and legal papers in one
place, so you can evacuate without worrying about gathering your family’s critical documents at the last minute. Visit
ready.gov/prepare and download Be Smart: Protect Your
Critical Documents and Valuables for a helpful checklist.
Global Security Systems’ ALERT FM system to Interface with NextRadio App
to Provide Emergency Notification to Users
Global Security Systems, (GSS) is partnering with NextRadio.
The NextRadio app team will review ways to interconnect with
GSS’s ALERT FM emergency notification system to provide
users with federal, state, and/or local information during the
event of a man-made or natural disaster. This new feature is
scheduled to be available to NextRadio users later this year.
“We are pleased to offer ALERT FM emergency information to
our NextRadio users later this year,” said Paul Brenner, President NextRadio. “NextRadio recognizes that the NAB broadcasters and U.S. Citizens will benefit from the marriage of live
local radio with life-saving alerts.”
ALERT FM provides federal, state, and/ or local emergency
information to citizens using the Radio Data System (“RDS”)
of local FM radio stations. Citizens can receive this information on ALERT FM receivers or any device including cellphones
equipped with an FM-chip and the proper software. ALERT FM
has the capability to keep users informed even when the power
is out or cellular service is down.
NextRadio is an app that turns your Android smartphone into a
portable FM radio. It uses the embedded FM-chip in the smartphone to allow users to listen to local FM radio without using
cellular data or the internet. NextRadio combines traditional
broadcast radio with modern technology to provide an interac-
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