A north Alabama emergency management official said Monday the federal government has made no move to reverse a severe weather broadcasting decision “that is probably going to cost some lives” in northeast Alabama.

Paul Smith of the Jackson County Emergency Management Agency has been fighting a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to reassign Jackson County from the Huntsville Designated Market Area (DMA) to the Chattanooga DMA based on Nielsen viewing data. That could mean less live storm coverage for approaching storms, Smith fears.

U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Huntsville) has formally requested Jackson County go back in the Huntsville coverage area. The county had been getting the non-stop severe weather coverage from Huntsville’s three television stations, he said. Now, it is primarily getting Chattanooga weather coverage although one Huntsville station, WAFF, is still available in Jackson County.

Smith said the issue is complicated by county geography. The Tennessee River divides Jackson County and residents atop the mountains east of the river can be on Eastern Standard Time. Many watch Chattanooga channels via cable, streaming and antennas, he said.

But people west of the river and those in the largest Jackson County city of Scottsboro typically watch Huntsville stations, Smith and Strong said. That’s 60 percent of the county’s population, he said, and they live 20 miles closer to Huntsville than Chattanooga and often work in the Rocket City.

“Chattanooga stations are not going to cover (Jackson County) in time,” Smith said he fears.

Philip Buehler, news director with Sinclair Broadcast Group in Chattanooga, told the Scottsboro Sentinel the switch isn’t really new. Jackson County has been in the Chattanooga coverage region since 2022, Buehler said, and Chattanooga stations will track Jackson County weather as it “has always.”

“Our Storm Track 9 weather team has always provided severe weather coverage for Jackson County, as well as DeKalb County, Alabama, and will continue to do so,” Buehler told the Sentinel. “Viewers in those counties can watch our over the air signal, and also turn to our WTVC Storm Track 9 weather app for the latest forecast and severe weather alerts.”

But Smith said the Emergency Management Agency wants Jackson County residents “to see bad weather a long way off.” The wall-to-wall coverage Huntsville stations frequently provide means elderly people can watch with the meteorologist as a storm approaches and respond to an on-air warning to take cover.

“But the biggest issue is Nielsen (ratings), not the Federal Communications Commission, is making this decision,” Smith said.

Strong agreed with Smith and asked the FCC in his letter “to reevaluate the process utilized to determine this (Designated Market Area) reassignment.” A call to the FCC for a comment Monday was not immediately returned.