NOAA Weather Service Radio Not Encoding Weather Watches via SAME?

As the entire Northeastern United States is getting blanketed by upwards of a foot of snow today and tonight, then another 7+ inches from a different storm tomorrow night, my dad made an interesting observation:  He's not receiving any Severe Weather Watches via NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) VHF weather radio.

I only realized it after he mentioned it, but even through the ice storm last week and the snow this week, I haven't received any watches or warnings either.  However my wife has been thrilled not to be woken up by the shrill alerts.

My dad called the NWS field office in Buffalo, where an unnamed meteorologist told him they were under a directive not to issue watches via the weather radio.  We both remember receiving watches during the summer thunderstorm season, but it's been very quiet the past few months.  Too quiet.

I emailed Raymond O'Keefe with the NWS Albany field office about this, and confirmed that while they do issue watches via weather service radio (as in, they announce them via voice), they do not SAME encode them.  He also said this isn't a new policy for them.

This weekend I will be digging into this issue while digging out from the snow while we impatiently await for our new arrival.