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Ocean Shores radio board flags streaming reliability and FCC-reporting concerns
Summary
Board discussed persistent stream dropouts, suggested technical fixes (off-air receivers, different feeds), and reviewed FCC public-file and disaster-reporting (DIRS) rules; public commenters urged stronger council representation and better outreach.
Station staff and board members told the Ocean Shores Radio Board they have seen intermittent stream dropouts for simulcast programming and have tried several troubleshooting steps without fully resolving the problem.
A staff member described the stream's behavior: "sometimes it's like every 2 minutes it goes out and sometimes it'll go for 30 minutes and it goes out," and the board discussed switching from the Comrex feed to the city's live stream or to a YouTube feed to reduce delay and improve reliability. The station suggested a simple off-air receiver with RCA outputs as a low-cost way to get a more stable over-the-air input for simulcasting.
Marty delivered a technology report focused on FCC compliance and emergency reporting tools. He summarized a pending FCC review about program classification and reminded the board of public-file and children's-programming requirements, citing a Pennsylvania station that entered a consent decree and paid a $41,000 voluntary contribution after lapses. He also explained the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), a system stations use to report outages and request assistance during large-scale disasters, and noted the FCC has streamlined DIRS input to make requests more actionable.
Public commenter Don praised improvements to council-meeting video coverage and urged the radio board to increase the station's presence at council meetings and to use the city's new alert system (launching June 1) to publicize board activity. Don said the board lacks consistent representation at council meetings and suggested petitioning the mayor for a more active council liaison.
The board assigned follow-up: operations staff will investigate stabilizing the simulcast feed (receiver options, changing feed sources) and coordinate with the station's program and scheduling staff to reduce disruptions during live shows. Marty was asked to ensure online public-file items and quarterly reports are up to date to avoid FCC enforcement risk.
