FCC Complaint Regarding Lack of Captioning

I wish to file a formal complaint against the following San Diego, CA
television stations for failure to provide accessibility of emergency video
programming (closed captioning) to persons with hearing disabilities:

XETV Channel 6 (Cable 6)
KFMB Channel 8 (Cable 8)
KGTV Channel 10 (Cable 10)
KUSI Channel 51 (Cable 9)

During the recent wild fire emergency, large areas of metro San Diego were
threatened with firestorms, over 300 homes were burned, and several people
died. Televised information included recommended and mandated evacuations,
the location of fire "hot spots", a plethora of safety instructions, the
location of shelters, how to obtain additional information, and a huge
amount of additional emergency information. Throughout the crucial two days
of this emergency (Sunday, October 26, 2003 and Monday, October 27, 2003),
these stations provided ongoing coverage of the emergency, but failed to
provide substantial portions of the information in a format that is
accessible to people with hearing loss.

Failure to make emergency information accessible to the 250,000 San Diegans
with hearing loss placed their lives at risk, and is inconsistent with their
civic responsibilities. I request that you intervene with these
organizations and help them to develop a plan to ensure that their future
emergency broadcasts comply with your regulations. I will be happy to assist
in this effort however I can.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,
Larry Sivertson

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Larry Sivertson, Executive Director
Hearing Loss Network
http://www.hearinglossnetwork.org