EVERYONE in radio knows not to mess with that long, blue box in the control room. You know, the room that always feels like 90 degrees?  Well, you don’t have to worry anymore about the engineer yelling at you for being too close to that long, blue box you’re not to mess with. Sage Alerting Systems announced they will no longer manufacture the Sage Digital ENDEC EAS encoder model 3644.

This piece of radio magic has been in production since 2008 and will cease to exist, at least new ones anyway. However, the president of the company, Harold Price, assures us they have plenty of parts to make repairs to the machines that still have existing warranties.

What does this mean for the EAS system now?

The higher-ups at Sage have said they have a free maintenance release for any bugs that may come about while under warranty. This will also help enable the Missing or Endangered Persons Alert code. This should take place within the next couple of months. They’ll, also, continue to support the firmware in the 3644 ENDEC. Unfortunately, there aren’t any plans for a replacement, yet. According to NHAB, Price has said, “The FCC has been contemplating major changes to EAS rules for the last year or two. What happens next remains to be seen. Sage will continue to evaluate opportunities for new products in the coming months.”