The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
,
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
, or
broadcast
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
television, and both
AM/
FM and
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
radio.
The EAS became operational on January 1, 1997, after being approved by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) in November 1994, replacing the
Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Broadcasting System or the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system an ...
(EBS). Its main improvement over the EBS, and perhaps its most distinctive feature, is its application of a
digitally encoded audio signal known as
Specific Area Message Encoding
Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a protocol used for framing and classification of broadcast emergency warning messages. It was developed by the United States National Weather Service for use on its NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) network, and w ...
(SAME), which is responsible for the "screeching" or "chirping" sounds at the start and end of each message. This signal encodes locations an alert applies to, useful for specialized encoding and decoding equipment at broadcasting stations to automatically filter alert messages that do not apply to the area and to relay messages that do.
Like the EBS, the system is primarily designed to allow the President of the United States to address the country via all radio and television stations in the event of a national emergency. Despite this, neither the system nor its predecessors have been used in this manner. The
ubiquity of news coverage in these situations, such as during the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
, have made usage of the system unnecessary or redundant.
In practice, it is used at a regional scale to distribute information regarding imminent threats to public safety, such as severe weather situations (including
flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing o ...
s and
tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
es),
AMBER Alert
An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert ( SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated i ...
s, and other civil emergencies.
It is jointly coordinated by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
(FEMA), the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA). The EAS regulations and standards are governed by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
. All broadcast television, broadcast and
satellite radio
Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...
stations, as well as
multichannel video programming distributor Multichannel television in the United States has been available since at least 1948. The United States is served by multichannel television through cable television systems, direct-broadcast satellite providers, and various other wireline video pro ...
s (MVPDs), are required to participate in the system.
The EAS is a front-end to the
Integrated Public Alert and Warning System
The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is an architecture that unifies the United States' Emergency Alert System, National Warning System, Wireless Emergency Alerts, and NOAA Weather Radio, under a single platform. IPAWS was desi ...
(IPAWS), which coordinates the distribution of alert information via multiple channels including the EAS, such as
Wireless Emergency Alerts
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA, formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), and prior to that as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN)), is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency alert ...
(WEA), using the
Common Alerting Protocol
The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. CAP allows a warning message to be consistently disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to m ...
(CAP).
Technical concept
Messages in the EAS are composed of four parts: a digitally encoded
Specific Area Message Encoding
Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a protocol used for framing and classification of broadcast emergency warning messages. It was developed by the United States National Weather Service for use on its NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) network, and w ...
(SAME)
header, an attention signal, an audio announcement, and a digitally encoded end-of-message marker.
![Sage EAS Endec](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Sage_EAS_Endec.jpg)
The is the most critical part of the EAS design. It contains information about who originated the alert (the president, state or local authorities, the
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
(NOAA/NWS), or the broadcaster), a short, general description of the event (tornado, flood, severe thunderstorm), the areas affected (up to 32 counties or states), the expected duration of the event (in minutes), the date and time it was issued (in
UTC), and an identification of the originating station (see
SAME for a complete breakdown of the header).
There are 77 radio stations designated as National Primary Stations in the Primary Entry Point (PEP) System to distribute presidential messages to other broadcast stations and cable systems.
The
Emergency Action Notification
An Emergency Action Notification ( SAME code: EAN) is the national activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and is used to alert the residents of the United States of a national or global emergency such as a nuclear war or any other mass ...
is the notice to broadcasters that the president of the United States or their designee will deliver a message over the EAS via the PEP system. The government has stated that the system would allow a president to speak during a national emergency within 10 minutes.
Primary Entry Point stations
The National Public Warning System, also known as the Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations, are a network of 77 radio stations that are, in coordination with FEMA, used to originate emergency alert and warning information to the public before, during, and after incidents and disasters. PEP stations are equipped with additional and backup communications equipment and power generators designed to enable them to continue broadcasting information to the public during and after an event.
Beginning with
WJR/Detroit and
WLW
WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One.
WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
/Cincinnati in 2016, FEMA began the process of constructing transportable studio shelters at the transmitters of 33 PEP stations, which feature broadcasting equipment, emergency provisions, a rest area, and an air filtration system. NPWS project manager Manny Centeno explained that these shelters were designed to "
xpandthe survivability of these stations to include an all hazards platform, which means chemical, biological, radiological air protection and protection from electromagnetic pulse."
Communication links
The FEMA National Radio System (FNARS) "Provides Primary Entry Point service to the Emergency Alert System", and acts as an emergency presidential link into the EAS. The FNARS net control station is located at the
Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center
The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is a government command facility in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia, used as the center of operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Also known as the High Point Special Facili ...
.
Once an EAN is received by an EAS participant from a PEP station (or any other participant) the message then "daisy chains'" through the network of participants. "Daisy chains" form when one station receives a message from multiple other stations and the station then forwards that message to multiple other stations. This process creates many redundant paths through which the message may flow increasing the likelihood that the message will be received by all participants and adding to the survivability of the system. Each EAS participant is required to monitor at least two other participants.
EAS header
Because the header lacks error detection codes, it is repeated three times for redundancy. EAS decoders compare the received headers against one another, looking for an exact match between any two, eliminating most errors which can cause an activation to fail. The decoder then decides whether to ignore the message or to relay it on the air if the message applies to the local area served by the station (following parameters set by the broadcaster).
The SAME header bursts are followed by an attention tone, which lasts between 8 and 25 seconds, depending on the originating station. The tone is on a
NOAA Weather Radio
NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Serv ...
station. On commercial broadcast stations, a attention signal of 853
Hz and 960 Hz
sine wave
A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or just sinusoid is a curve, mathematical curve defined in terms of the ''sine'' trigonometric function, of which it is the graph of a function, graph. It is a type of continuous wave and also a Smoothness, smooth p ...
s is used instead, the same signal used by the older
Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Broadcasting System or the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system an ...
. These tones have become infamous, and can be considered both frightening and annoying by viewers; in fact, the two tones, which form approximately the interval of a just
major second
In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more deta ...
at an unusually high pitch, were chosen specifically for their ability to draw attention, due to their unpleasantness on the
human ear
An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists o ...
. The SAME header is equally known for its shrillness, which many have found to be startling. The "two-tone" system is no longer required as of 1998, and is to be used only for audio alerts before EAS messages.
Like the EBS, the attention signal is followed by a voice message describing the details of the alert.
The message ends with 3 bursts of the
AFSK
Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier signal. The technology is used for communication systems such as telemetry, weather ball ...
"EOM", or
End of Message, which is the text
NNNN
, preceded each time by the
binary
Binary may refer to:
Science and technology Mathematics
* Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1)
* Binary function, a function that takes two arguments
* Binary operation, a mathematical operation that t ...
10101011 calibration.
IPAWS
![GormanCAPconverter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/GormanCAPconverter.jpg)
Under a 2006 executive order issued by
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
, the U.S. government was instructed to create "an effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive" public warning system. This was accomplished via expansions to the aforementioned PEP network, and the development of the
Integrated Public Alert and Warning System
The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is an architecture that unifies the United States' Emergency Alert System, National Warning System, Wireless Emergency Alerts, and NOAA Weather Radio, under a single platform. IPAWS was desi ...
(IPAWS)—a national aggregator and distributor of alert information using the
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
-based
Common Alerting Protocol
The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. CAP allows a warning message to be consistently disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to m ...
(CAP) and an internet network. IPAWS can be used to distribute alert information to EAS participants, supported mobile phones (
Wireless Emergency Alerts
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA, formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), and prior to that as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN)), is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency alert ...
), and other platforms.
Under an FCC report and order issued in 2007, EAS participants would be required to migrate to digital equipment supporting CAP within 180 days of the specification's adoption by FEMA. This officially occurred September 30, 2010, but the deadline was later delayed to June 30, 2012 at the request of broadcasters.
The FCC has established that IPAWS is not a full substitute for the existing SAME protocol, as it is vulnerable to situations that may make internet connectivity unavailable. Therefore, broadcasters must convert CAP messages to legacy SAME headers to enable
backwards compatibility
Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially i ...
with the existing "daisy chain" method of EAS distribution, providing a backup distribution path.
In December 2021, the FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to prioritize the display of alert audio and text from CAP messages, in order to provide higher quality audio (rather than simulcasting the audio off-air from a radio station) and improve parity between the visual display and alert audio for the benefit of the hard of hearing. The rules were enacted in September 2022.
Station requirements
The FCC requires all broadcast stations and
multichannel video programming distributor Multichannel television in the United States has been available since at least 1948. The United States is served by multichannel television through cable television systems, direct-broadcast satellite providers, and various other wireline video pro ...
s (MVPD), hereafter "EAS participants", to install and maintain FCC-certified EAS decoders and encoders at their control points or
headends. These decoders continuously monitor the signals from other nearby broadcast stations for EAS messages. For reliability, at least two source stations must be monitored, one of which must be a designated ''local primary''. Participants are to retain the latest version of the EAS handbook.
EAS participants are required by federal law to relay
Emergency Action Notification
An Emergency Action Notification ( SAME code: EAN) is the national activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and is used to alert the residents of the United States of a national or global emergency such as a nuclear war or any other mass ...
(EAN) messages immediately (47 CFR Part 11.54). Broadcasters traditionally have been allowed to opt out of relaying other alerts such as
severe weather
Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. Types of severe weather phenomena vary, depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atm ...
, and
child abduction
Child abduction or child theft is the unauthorized removal of a Minor (law), minor (a child under the age of Age of majority, legal adulthood) from the Child custody, custody of the child's Parent, natural parents or Legal guardian, legally appo ...
emergencies (
AMBER Alert
An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert ( SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated i ...
s) if they so choose. In practice, television stations with
local news departments will usually
interrupt regularly-scheduled programming during newsworthy situations (such as severe weather) to provide extended coverage.
If possible, EAS participants must transmit the audio,
and (where applicable) a visual display containing the extended text, from the associated CAP message.
EAS participants are required to keep logs of all received messages. Logs may be kept by hand but are usually kept automatically by a small receipt printer in the encoder/decoder unit. Logs may also be kept electronically inside the unit as long as there is access to an external printer or method to transfer them to a
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
.
System tests
All EAS equipment must be tested on a weekly basis. The required weekly test (RWT) consists, at a minimum, of the header and end-of-message tones. Though an RWT does not need an audio or graphic message announcing the test, many stations provide them as a courtesy to the public. In addition, television stations are not required to transmit a video message for weekly tests. RWTs are scheduled by the station on random days and times, (though quite often during late night or early afternoon hours), and are generally not relayed.
![Required Monthly Test of Emergency Alert System in New Jersey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Required_Monthly_Test_of_Emergency_Alert_System_in_New_Jersey.jpg)
Required monthly tests (RMTs) are generally originated by the local or state primary station, a state emergency management agency, or by the National Weather Service and are then relayed by broadcast stations and cable channels. RMTs must be performed between 8:30 a.m. and local sunset during odd numbered months, and between local sunset and 8:30 a.m. during even numbered months. Received monthly tests must be retransmitted within 60 minutes of receipt.
Additionally, an RMT should not be scheduled or conducted during an event of great importance such as a pre-announced presidential speech, coverage of a national/local election, major local or national news coverage outside regularly scheduled newscast hours or a major national sporting event such as the
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
or
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
, with other events such as the
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...
and
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
mentioned in individual EAS state plans.
An RWT is not required during a calendar week in which an RMT is scheduled. No testing has to be done during a calendar week in which all parts of the EAS (header burst, attention signal, audio message, and end of message burst) have been legitimately activated.
In July 2018, in response to the aftermath of the
false missile alert in Hawaii earlier in the year (which was caused by operator error during an internal drill protocol), the FCC announced that it would take steps to promote public awareness and improve efficiency of the system, including requiring safeguards to prevent distribution of false alarms, the ability to authorize "live code" tests—which would simulate the process and response to an actual emergency, and authorizations to use the EAS tones in public service announcements that promote awareness of the system.
Nationwide tests
On February 3, 2011, the FCC announced plans and procedures for national EAS tests, which involve all television and radio stations connected to the EAS, as well as all cable and satellite services in the United States. They are not relayed on the NOAA Weather Radio (NOAA/NWS) network as it is an initiation-only network and does not receive messages from the PEP network. The national test would transmit and relay an
Emergency Action Notification
An Emergency Action Notification ( SAME code: EAN) is the national activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and is used to alert the residents of the United States of a national or global emergency such as a nuclear war or any other mass ...
on November 9, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. EST.
The FCC found that only half of the participants received the message via IPAWS, and some "failed to receive or retransmit alerts due to erroneous equipment configuration, equipment readiness and upkeep issues, and confusion regarding EAS rules and technical requirements", and that participation among low-power broadcasters was low. To reduce viewer confusion, the FCC stated that future national tests would be delivered under the new event code "National Periodic Test" ("NPT"), and list "United States" as its location.
A second national test, now classified as an NPT, occurred on September 28, 2016 as part of
National Preparedness Month
Since its inception in 2004, National Preparedness Month is observed each September in the United States of America. It is sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within the Department of Homeland Security and encourages America ...
. A third national periodic test occurred on September 27, 2017.
The fourth NPT occurred on October 3, 2018 (delayed from September 20, 2018, due to
Hurricane Florence
Hurricane Florence was a powerful and long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that caused catastrophic damage in the Carolinas in September 2018, primarily as a result of freshwater flooding due to torrential rain. The sixth named storm, third hu ...
). It was preceded by the first mandatory wireless emergency alert test.
The fifth NPT occurred on August 7, 2019, and moved up from past years to prevent it from occurring during the heart of the
Atlantic hurricane season
The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year from June through November when tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean, referred to in North American countries as hurricanes, tropical storms, or tropical depressions. In addition ...
. The test focused exclusively on distribution to broadcast outlets and television providers via the primary entry point network to gauge the efficiency of alert distribution in the event the internet cannot be used.
The sixth NPT was postponed to 2021 amid the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
"out of consideration for the unusual circumstances and working conditions for those in the broadcast and cable industry."
The sixth test occurred on August 11, 2021, at 2:20 PM EDT. This test involved the WEA system alongside television and radio.
On May 3, 2022, it was announced that the seventh NPT would not take place during 2022, and instead occur in early 2023.
It was announced on October 2, 2022, that the "National Periodic Test" name and the "Primary Entry Point System" originator code name would be replaced. The seventh scheduled nationwide test would be under the "Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System" name with its originator code under the "
United States Government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
".
Additions and proposals
The number of event types in the national system has grown to eighty. At first, all but three of the events (civil emergency message, immediate evacuation, and emergency action notification
ational emergency were weather-related (such as a
tornado warning
A tornado warning ( SAME code: TOR) is a severe weather warning product issued by regional offices of weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public when a tornado has been reported or indicated by weather radar within the ...
). Since then, several classes of non-weather emergencies have been added, including, in most states, the
AMBER Alert
An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert ( SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated i ...
System for child abduction emergencies. In 2016, three additional weather alert codes were authorized for use in relation to hurricane events, including
Extreme Wind Warning
An extreme wind warning ( SAME code EWW) is an alert issued by the National Weather Service for areas that will experience sustained surface winds 100 knots (115 mph, 185 km/h, 51 m/s) or greater within one hour, due to a lan ...
(EWW),
Storm Surge Warning (SSW) and
Storm Surge Watch (SSA).
In 2004, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) seeking comment on whether EAS in its present form is the most effective mechanism for warning the American public of an emergency and, if not, on how EAS can be improved, such as mandatory text messages to cellphones, regardless of subscription. As noted above, rules implemented by the FCC on July 12, 2007 provisionally endorse incorporating CAP with the SAME protocol.
In November 2020, Congress passed the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act. First sponsored by Hawaii Senator
Brian Schatz
Brian Emanuel Schatz (; born October 20, 1972) is an American educator and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Hawaii, a seat he has held since 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, Schatz served in the Hawaii House o ...
in response to the
Hawaii false missile alert, it amends the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act to require distribution of wireless alerts issued by the administrator of FEMA, and commands the FCC to establish a means of reporting false alerts, encourage the establishment of State Emergency Communications Committees (SECC) that would meet annually to evaluate their EAS plans, require the repetition of alerts surrounding "emergencies of national significance", and open an inquiry into the feasibility of implementing the EAS on internet-related services.
Limitations
The EAS can only be used to relay audio messages that preempt all programming; as the intent of an Emergency Action Notification is to serve as a "last-ditch effort to get a message out if the president cannot get to the media", it can easily be made redundant by the
immediate and constant coverage that major weather events and other newsworthy situations—such as, most prominently, the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
in 2001—receive from television broadcasters and
news channel
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...
s. Following the attacks, then-FCC chairman
Michael K. Powell cited "the ubiquitous media environment" as justification for not using the EAS in their immediate aftermath. Glenn Collins of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' acknowledged these limitations, noting that "no president has ever used the current
ASsystem or its technical predecessors in the last 50 years, despite the
Soviet missile crisis, a
presidential assassination, the
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-government extremists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry N ...
, major earthquakes and three recent high-alert terrorist warnings", and that using it would have actually hindered the availability of live coverage from media outlets.
Following the
tornado outbreak of March 3, 2019
A significant and deadly severe weather event that affected the Southeastern United States on March 3, 2019. Over the course of 6 hours, a total of 41 tornadoes touched down across portions of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carol ...
, Birmingham, Alabama NWS meteorologist Kevin Laws told
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
that he, personally, wished that alerts could be updated in real-time in order to reflect the unpredictable nature of weather events, noting that the storm system's unexpected change in trajectory towards
Lee County resulted in only a nine-minute warning (the resulting tornado would kill 23 people).
The trend of
cord cutting
In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reduci ...
has led to concerns that viewers' lessened use of broadcast media in favor of
streaming video services would inhibit their ability to receive emergency information (notwithstanding
availability of alerts on mobile phones).
The READI Act called for an inquiry into the distribution of alerts via internet platforms.
Incidents
False alarms
* On February 1, 2005 in
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
, an alert was
mistakenly issued calling for the immediate evacuation of the entire state. The alert contained no specific detail on why it had been issued. The message was broadcast due to operator error while conducting an unannounced, but scheduled statewide test. A study conducted following the incident reported that at least 11% of residents actually saw the warning live, and that 63% of those surveyed were "a little or not at all concerned"—citing a suspicious lack of detail in the message, which a legitimate alert would include. Only 1% of those surveyed actually attempted to leave the state.
Connecticut State Police
The Connecticut State Police (CSP) is a division of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection responsible for traffic regulation and law enforcement across the state of Connecticut, especially in areas not served by ...
did not receive any calls related to the incident.
* On June 26, 2007 at 7:35 a.m.
CDT, an
Emergency Action Notification
An Emergency Action Notification ( SAME code: EAN) is the national activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and is used to alert the residents of the United States of a national or global emergency such as a nuclear war or any other mass ...
was accidentally issued in the state of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, when a new satellite receiver at the state's EOC was accidentally connected to a live system before final internal testing of the new delivery path had been completed. The alert was followed by
dead air
Dead air is an unintended period of silence that interrupts a broadcast during which no audio or video program material is transmitted.
Radio and television
Dead air occurs in radio broadcasting when no audio program is transmitted for an extend ...
, and then audio from designated station
720 WGN in Chicago being simulcast across almost every television and radio station in the Chicago area and throughout much of Illinois. A confused
Spike O'Dell
William "Spike" O'Dell (born May 21, 1953), a native of East Moline, Illinois, is an American former radio host for WGN Radio in Chicago, Illinois. He joined WGN in 1987 and hosted the afternoon show until 2000 when he took over for Bob Collins (Am ...
, host of the station's morning show at the time, was heard on-air wondering "what that beeping was all about".
* On May 19, 2010,
NOAA Weather Radio
NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Serv ...
and
CSEPP tone alert radios in the
Hermiston, Oregon
Hermiston () is a city in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. Its population of 19,696 makes it the largest city in Eastern Oregon. Hermiston is the largest, and fastest-growing, city in the Hermiston-Pendleton Micropolitan Statistical Area ...
area, near the
Umatilla Chemical Depot
The Umatilla Chemical Depot, (UMCD) based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U.S. Army installation in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons originally stored at the depot consisted of various live munitions and storage con ...
, were activated with an EAS alert shortly after 5 p.m. The message transmitted was for a
severe thunderstorm warning
A severe thunderstorm warning ( SAME code: SVR) is a severe weather warning product issued by regional offices of weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public that severe thunderstorms are imminent or occurring.
A sev ...
, issued by the National Weather Service in
Pendleton Pendleton may refer to:
Places
;United Kingdom
*Pendleton, Lancashire, England
*Pendleton, Greater Manchester, England
;United States
*Pendleton, Indiana
* Pendleton, Missouri
*Pendleton, New York
*Pendleton, Oregon
*Pendleton, South Carolina
*Pe ...
, but the transmission broadcast instead was a long period of silence, followed by a few words in Spanish.
Umatilla County
Umatilla County () is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 80,075. Hermiston is the largest city in Umatilla County, but Pendleton remains the county seat. Umatilla County is part of ...
Emergency Management has stressed there was no emergency at the depot.
* On September 3, 2016, in the wake of
Tropical Storm Hermine, an alert was displayed on television calling for the immediate evacuation of the entirety of
Suffolk County, abruptly ending with the incomplete sentence "This is an emergency message from". About 15 minutes after the original message was sent, the alert was re-issued with an addendum clarifying that the alert was actually calling for a voluntary evacuation of
Fire Island
Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York.
Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Long ...
—a
barrier island
Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...
of
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. Officials cited an error in the county's Code Red system; while the correct message was entered into the system, an error processing an abbreviated message for television resulted in the error.
* On August 15, 2017 at approximately 12:25 a.m.
ChST
The Chamorro Time Zone, formerly the Guam Time Zone, is a United States time zone which observes standard time ten hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC+10:00). The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 150th m ...
,
Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...
stations
KTWG and
KSTO transmitted a civil danger warning for the island; Guam Homeland Security described the message, which interrupted programming on the stations, and was received on television by some viewers, as being an "unauthorized test" of the EAS. The incident's impact was strengthened, as
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
had threatened the launch of ballistic missiles towards Guam only a few days beforehand. Numerous calls to 911 operators and the
Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
were made following the broadcast.
![2018 Hawaii missile alert](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/2018_Hawaii_missile_alert.jpg)
* On January 13, 2018 at approximately 8:07 a.m.
HST, the
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) is the body responsible for managing emergencies in the United States State of Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean ab ...
(HI-EMA) mistakenly
issued an emergency alert warning of a ballistic missile inbound threatening the region, which was claimed to be not a drill. 38 minutes later, it was announced by HI-EMA and the
Honolulu Police Department
The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) is the principal law enforcement agency of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, headquartered in the Alapa'i Police Headquarters in Honolulu CDP.
Officially recognized as a part of the government of the ...
that the alert was a false alarm. The incident came amidst heightened concern over the possibility that Hawaii could be targeted by North Korean missiles (in December 2017, Hawaii tested its missile sirens for the first time since the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
). HI-EMA administrator
Vern Miyagi
Vern T. Miyagi is a former administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) who was responsible for the day-to-day operations of HI-EMA from September 11, 2015 to January 30, 2018. Before that he was executive officer at HI-EMA. ...
stated that the incident was a "mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift".
* On August 31, 2022, amid
wildfires
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...
, an immediate evacuation notice was mistakenly issued by the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management for Los Angeles, the Eastern North Pacific Ocean, and Port Conception to Guadalupe; the alert text repeatedly listed "Eastern North Pacific Ocean" or "Eastern North Pacific" twelve different times. The
Ventura County Sheriff's Office
The Ventura County Sheriff's Office (VCSO), also sometimes known as the Ventura County Sheriff's Department (VCSD), provides law enforcement for the unincorporated areas of Ventura County, California as well as several cities within the county. ...
stated that the alert had been issued in error.
Cybersecurity breaches
EAS equipment has been the subject of various
cyberattacks
A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...
, caused primarily by participants using insecure or factory default passwords on their encoders and decoders, and outdated software containing
unpatched vulnerabilities
Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally."
A window of vulnerability (WOV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, com ...
. On multiple occasions, federal government departments have warned that failure to employ secure passwords and keep software updated made EAS equipment vulnerable to such attacks, which could result in disruptions such as false alerts.
* In February 2013, the EAS equipment of several stations in
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 census. The city covers an area of and is the principal city of the Great Falls, M ...
and
Marquette, Michigan
Marquette ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquett ...
were breached to play a false alert allegedly warning of a
zombie apocalypse
Zombie apocalypse is a genre of fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack hum ...
, using the lines "City authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from the graves and attacking the living" from the
Anthrax
Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...
song "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't". It was identified that the attack had come from an "overseas" source. Furthermore, the broadcasters had neglected to change the factory default logins or passwords on their equipment. Because of this, the FCC, FEMA, equipment manufacturers, as well as trade groups, including the
Michigan Association of Broadcasters
The Michigan Association of Broadcasters represents radio and television broadcasters across the U.S. state of Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern ...
, urged broadcasters to change their passwords and to recheck their security measures.
** In a related incident,
WIZM-FM
WIZM-FM (93.3 MHz) is a radio station broadcasting a Top 40/ CHR format. Licensed to La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, the station serves the La Crosse area. The station is currently owned by Mid-West Family Broadcasting.
WIZM-FM is the Loc ...
in
La Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census w ...
accidentally triggered the EAS on television station
WKBT-DT
WKBT-DT (channel 8) is a television station licensed to La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, serving the La Crosse– Eau Claire market as an affiliate of CBS and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Morgan Murphy Media, the station maintains studios on South ...
by airing a recording of the false message during its morning show. The relayed audio included the hosts' reactions and laughter to the clip.
* On February 28, 2017,
WZZY in
Winchester, Indiana
Winchester is a city in White River Township, Randolph County, Indiana, White River Township, Randolph County, Indiana, Randolph County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 4,935 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Rando ...
was hacked in a nearly-identical manner, playing the same "dead bodies" audio from the February 2013 incidents. The incident prompted a public response from the Randolph County Sheriff's Department clarifying that there was no actual emergency.
* In January 2020, ''Security Ledger'' published an investigation finding that at least 50 EAS decoders by Digital Alert Systems had not been patched for a security vulnerability (use of a shared
SSH
The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution.
SSH applications are based on a ...
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
) found by
IOActive
IOActive is an independent research fueled security services firm active in several areas. They are known for reporting high severity security vulnerabilities in a variety of products. IOActive has offices in Seattle, London, Dubai and Madrid. IO ...
in 2013.
* On February 20, 2020, the EAS equipment of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
-based provider
Wave Broadband
WaveDivision Holdings, LLC, doing business as Wave Broadband, is an American provider of residential, business, and enterprise class cable TV, broadband Internet, and telephone services to around 455,000 customers in Washington, Oregon, and Ca ...
was hacked, causing approximately 3,000 customers in
Jefferson County to receive several false alerts (including a "Radiological Hazard Warning"), which contained irrelevant messages (including one suggesting that the provider change its passwords) and alert audio referencing
internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
s and websites. On March 2 and 3, 2020, a legitimate Required Monthly Test was displayed with a message ("AIGHT IM DONE U CAN REST NOW. MR GERDE WAS HERE") that had also appeared in the hack: a company official stated that this was a remnant of the attack that had not yet been removed.
Tone usage outside of alerts
To protect the integrity of the system, and prevent false activations, the FCC prohibits the use of actual or simulated EAS/WEA tones and attention signals outside of genuine alerts, tests, or authorized
public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s, especially when they are used "to capture audience attention during advertisements; dramatic, entertainment, and educational programs". Broadcasters who misuse the tones may be sanctioned (including being required to partake in compliance measures) and fined.
* Tones from the EAS were used in the trailer for the 2013 film ''
Olympus Has Fallen
''Olympus Has Fallen'' is a 2013 American action thriller film directed and co-produced by Antoine Fuqua from a screenplay written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, and is the first installment in the ''Has Fallen'' film series. The ...
''; cable providers were fined $1.9 million by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 3, 2014 for misuse of EAS tones. An event similar to this previously occurred in November 2013, when
TBS was fined $25,000 for the use of EAS tones in a ''
Conan'' advertisement.
* During the October 24, 2014 episode of the syndicated radio show ''
The Bobby Bones Show
''The Bobby Bones Show'' is an American nationally syndicated country music radio show aired during the morning drive. The Bobby Bones Show originated in Austin, Texas, but now originates from studios at WSIX-FM in Nashville. The show is syndica ...
'', host
Bobby Bones
Bobby Bones (born Bobby Estell) is an American radio and television personality, best known for hosting the nationally syndicated ''The Bobby Bones Show'', originating at KISS-FM in Austin, TX, and for his role as a full-time mentor on ''America ...
played audio from the 2011 national test as part of a rant about a genuine test from Nashville's Fox affiliate,
WZTV
WZTV (channel 17) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP-TV (channel 30); it is also ...
, that interrupted Game 2 of the
2014 World Series
The 2014 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2014 season. The 110th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants and the Ameri ...
on October 22. The errant Emergency Action Notification was relayed to some broadcasters and cable systems—particularly those not configured to reject EAN messages that did not match the current date. On May 19, 2015,
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
, who distributes the show and owns its flagship station
WSIX-FM
WSIX-FM (97.9 MHz, "The Big 98") is a radio station licensed to serve Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station broadcasts a country music format. WSIX's studios are located in Nashville's Music Row district and the transmitter sit ...
, was fined $1 million for the incident. The company was also ordered to implement a three-year compliance plan to avoid any further incidents, including removing all EAS tones or similar-sounding noises from its audio production libraries.
* From August 4 to 6, 2016,
Tegna, Inc.
Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
-owned
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
affiliate
WTLV
WTLV (channel 12) is a television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Orange Park–licensed ABC affiliate WJXX (channel 25). Both stations share studios on East Adams Stre ...
in
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
aired an ad several times during NBC's primetime coverage of the
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
produced by the marketing department of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
's
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...
featuring out-of-sequence EAS tones over Jaguars training camp footage and a voiceover noting "this is not a test, this is an emergency broadcast transmission...seek shelter immediately", along with the on-screen text "the storm is coming". The ad aired four times before station compliance authorities pulled the advertisement after the
local news industry blog FTVLive criticized the station for carrying it, especially during the peak of the
Atlantic hurricane season
The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year from June through November when tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean, referred to in North American countries as hurricanes, tropical storms, or tropical depressions. In addition ...
. FTVLive's piece would be noted by the FCC in their decision against WTLV rendered on May 30, 2017, when it was given a $55,000 fine for carrying the offending Jaguars ad.
* The FCC issued several fines relating to EAS tone usage in August 2019, including
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
being fined $395,000 for using wireless emergency alert tones multiple times during a ''
Jimmy Kimmel Live
''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, California, as part of ABC's lead ...
'' sketch,
AMC Networks
AMC Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York.
AMC Networks owns and operates the eponymous cable channel and its siblings, IFC, We TV, and Sundance TV; the art house movie theater IFC Cen ...
being fined $104,000 for using the tones in ''
The Walking Dead'' episode "
Omega
Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value of 800. The wo ...
",
Discovery Inc.
Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chann ...
being fined $68,000 for including footage of an actual WEA activation during a ''
Lone Star Law
''Lone Star Law'' is an American reality television series that debuted on June 2, 2016, on Animal Planet.
Set in Texas and similar to its network sister show '' North Woods Law'', the show follows numerous game wardens of the Texas Parks and Wi ...
'' episode filmed during
Hurricane Harvey
Hurricane Harvey was a devastating Category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest t ...
, and
Meruelo Group
Alex Meruelo (born March 27, 1964) is a Cuban-American billionaire who holds business interests in banking, real estate, media, restaurants, food, casinos, and professional sports. He is the owner of Meruelo Group, as well as Meruelo Media, whic ...
was fined $61,000 for including an EAS-like tone during a radio advertisement for
KDAY
KDAY (93.5 FM, "93.5 KDAY") is a radio station that is licensed to Redondo Beach, California and serves the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by Meruelo Media and airs a classic hip hop format. The station's studios are located in ...
and
KDEY-FM
KDEY-FM (93.5 MHz, "93.5 KDAY") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Ontario, California and serves the Inland Empire area. The station is owned by Meruelo Radio Holdings Ltd. and broadcasts a classic hip hop format. The KDEY-FM tran ...
's morning show.
* On September 9, 2019, the FCC proposed a $272,000 fine against
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
for using simulated EAS tones in the ''
Young Sheldon
''Young Sheldon'' is an American List of coming-of-age stories, coming-of-age sitcom television series created by Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro for CBS. The series, set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is a Spin-off (media), spin-off prequel ...
'' episode, "A Mother, A Child, and a Blue Man's Backside". CBS defended the statement, saying that the tones' usage was a "dramatic portrayal", and that it was an "integral part of the storyline about a family's visceral reaction to a life-threatening emergency". The show's sound editors achieved the effect by downloading EAS tones from YouTube and modifying the volume of the tone. CBS passed the edited tone through three quality rooms equipped with EAS decoders and prescreened the episode to make sure it did not trigger an actual alert. Also, the show's dialogue was used to obscure some elements of the alert. However, the FCC insisted that the modified tone still sounded like a normal EAS tone, despite the volume being lowered and the tone being cut short in duration. It also said that the prescreening process did not excuse an unauthorized usage of the EAS tones.
* On April 7, 2020, the FCC proposed a $20,000 fine against New York City radio station
WNEW-FM
WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manha ...
, for using the attention signal during its morning show on October 3, 2018 as part of a skit discussing the National Periodic Test held later that day.
Testing errors
* On October 19, 2008,
KWVE-FM
KWVE-FM (107.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Clemente, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area and northern San Diego County. KWVE-FM airs Christian radio programming with an emphasis on Bible teaching and Chr ...
in
San Clemente, California
San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway betwee ...
accidentally initiated a Required Monthly Test when it meant to conduct a Required Weekly Test. Furthermore, an operator aborted the test mid-way through the broadcast (failing to broadcast the end-of-message tone), causing all area outlets to broadcast KWVE-FM's programming until those stations took their equipment offline. On September 15, 2009, the FCC fined the station's owner,
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa is a Christian church, Christian megachurch located near the boundary between the cities of Costa Mesa, California, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana in Orange County, California, Orange County. Although t ...
, $5,000. After the fine was levied, various state broadcast associations in the United States submitted joint letters to the FCC, protesting against the fine, saying that the commission could have handled the matter better. On November 13, 2009, the FCC rescinded its fine against KWVE-FM, but had still admonished the station for broadcasting an unauthorized RMT, as well as omitting the code to end the test.
* On November 9, 2011, the first National EAS Test was conducted. Many reported visuals or audio missing, and in the case of
DirecTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
,
Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
's song "
Paparazzi
Paparazzi (, ; ; singular: masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people; such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects ...
" was heard.
* On September 28, 2016, an emergency alert was broadcast by
WKTV
WKTV (channel 2) is a television station in Utica, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC, CBS, and The CW Plus. Owned by Heartland Media, the station has studios on Smith Hill Road in Deerfield (with a Utica postal address), and its ...
in
Utica, New York
Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...
that contained a Hazardous Materials Warning for the entire United States. The message contained a non-sequitur quote from the
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;["Seuss"](_blank)
'' Green Eggs and Ham
''Green Eggs and Ham'' is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, first published on August 12, 1960. As of 2019, the book has sold 8 million copies worldwide.
The story has appeared in several adaptations, starting with 1973's ''Dr. Seuss on the Loose ...
,'' "Would you. Could you. On a train?" WKTV apologized and stated that the alert was "an automated test
rom FEMAwhich was not intended for public display." A FEMA representative stated that its decoders had been mistakenly "configured to poll a test and development message aggregator instead of or in addition to the production message aggregator", with the test server having used the ''Green Eggs and Ham'' quote as placeholder text. The error was also connected to conspiracy theories surrounding
a train crash in New Jersey that occurred the next day, which claimed that the alert was a forewarning of the incident.
* On September 21, 2017, a technical glitch in another scheduled test by KWVE caused the end-of-message tone to be omitted, causing regional participants (particularly
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
and
Cox Cable
Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...
systems in
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
) to simulcast a portion of
Chuck Swindoll
Charles Rozell Swindoll (born October 18, 1934) is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded ''Insight for Living'', headquartered in Frisco, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more t ...
's ''Insight for Living'' program. Some viewers speculated that the system had been hacked, as the portion of the program relayed (where Swindoll was discussing the Bible verse
2 Timothy 3:1, and stated, "Realize this, extremely violent times will come.") could be insinuated out of context as discussing an impending apocalypse.
See also
*
Alert Ready
The National Public Alerting System (NPAS; french: Système national d'alertes à la population), branded as Alert Ready (), is the national warning system in Canada, broadcast to Canadian television, radio, and wireless devices.
The system con ...
(Canada)
*
Digital Emergency Alert System The Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) was a system managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and designed to alert first-responders and civilians in the event of a national emergency. It was based upon and supplemented the Emerg ...
(DEAS)
*
Earthquake Early Warning (Japan)
In Japan, the is a warning issued when an earthquake is detected by multiple seismometers. These warnings are primarily issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), with guidance on how to react to them.
Intro
The JMA has two EEW systems: ...
*
Emergency population warning
An emergency population warning is a method whereby local, regional, or national authorities can contact members of the public en masse to warn them of an impending emergency. These warnings may be necessary for a number of reasons, including:
* ...
*
Emergency Public Warning System
The Emergency Public Warning System was a system used in the province of Alberta, Canada until October 2011, whereby local or provincial authorities could warn the public about impending or current emergencies affecting their area. The system wa ...
*
Flash Flood Guidance Systems The flash flood guidance system (FFGS) was designed and developed by the Hydrologic Research Center, a non-profit public-benefit corporation located in San Diego, CA, US, for use by meteorological and hydrologic forecasters throughout the world. Th ...
*
HANDEL
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...
(UK's former National Attack Warning System)
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ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
's TEAC (Transfer Emergency Action Contact) channel in cases of
URL hijacking
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J-Alert
J-Alert ( ja, J-ALERT/Jアラート, J Arāto; full name ja, 全国瞬時警報システム, Zenkoku Shunji Keihō Shisutemu, National Early Warning System, label=none) is the early warning system used in Japan. J-Alert was launched in Februa ...
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Local Access Alert
The Local Access Alert (also known as Local Access System or Emergency Override System) is a warning system designed to warn radio, television stations, cable television broadcast feeds or satellite signals of impending dangers, such as tornadoes, ...
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Mexican Seismic Alert System
The Mexican Seismic Alert System (Spanish: ''Sistema de Alerta Sísmica Mexicano'' or SASMEX) is the earthquake warning system covering portions of central and southern Mexico. It currently provides up to 60 seconds' warning of earthquakes to Me ...
(Mexico's Earthquake Early Warning System, which also employs Specific Area Message Encoding technology)
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National Severe Weather Warning Service
The National Severe Weather Warning Service (shortened to NSWWS) is a service provided by the Met Office in the United Kingdom. The purpose of this service is to warn the public and emergency responders of severe or hazardous weather which has ...
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National Warning System
The National Warning System (NAWAS) is an automated telephone system used to convey warnings to United States-based federal, state and local governments, as well as the military and civilian population.[NOAA Weather Radio
NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Serv ...]
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Nuclear football
The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the Presidential Emergency Satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the preside ...
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Nuclear MASINT
Nuclear MASINT is one of the six major subdisciplines generally accepted to make up Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT), which covers measurement and characterization of information derived from nuclear radiation and other physical phe ...
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Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
The Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) is an emergency radio service authorized in Part 97.407 of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules and regulations governing amateur radio in the United States.[Specific Area Message Encoding
Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a protocol used for framing and classification of broadcast emergency warning messages. It was developed by the United States National Weather Service for use on its NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) network, and w ...]
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Standard Emergency Warning Signal (Australia)
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Wartime Broadcasting Service
The Wartime Broadcasting Service is a service of the BBC that is intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing destroyed regular BBC facilities in a conventional war. It is unclear if the ...
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Weatheradio Canada
Weatheradio Canada (french: Radiométéo Canada) is a Canadian weather radio network owned and operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada division that is an official partner of the U.S. National Weather ...
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Wireless Emergency Alerts
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA, formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), and prior to that as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN)), is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency alert ...
(WEA)
References
External links
{{commons category, Emergency Alert System
Consumer facts page
1997 establishments in the United States
Broadcasting in the United States
Cold War history of the United States
Disaster preparedness in the United States
Emergency population warning systems
Mass media companies established in 1997
United States civil defense
United States communications regulation
United States warning systems