Illinois Emergency Alert System activated by mistake
Hundreds of radio stations in and around Chicago were sent the Emergency Alert System by mistake, disrupting broadcasts for a few anxious moments
During the cold war the federal government created the Emergency Alert System. In case of an impending nuclear attack, radio station were to issue instructions to citizens as to what they should do. Earlier this week the listeners of many radio stations in and around Chicago were were treated to the sound of dead air followed by the voice of WGN-AM 720 morning man Spike O’Dell struggling to figure out what had happened.
The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal writes that O’Dell’s pair of brief surprise appearances between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. on everything from local public broadcasting to music stations — a FEMA spokeswoman called it an “unintentional disruption” — stemmed from a FEMA contractor’s installation of the state’s Emergency Alert System satellite receiver in Springfield as part of a nationwide upgrade. The FEMA spokeswoman said the new Illinois receiver inadvertently picked up a closed-circuit test between receivers in Richmond, Virginia, and Cleveland.
The good news is that the interrupted morning drive-time broadcasts proved the Illinois system worked. The bad news is that what is known as an Emergency Action Notification, or EAN — the highest level of EAS alert, indicating an emergency message is coming from the White House — could be relayed mistakenly to override stations. The mistake sent engineers scrambling at the affected outlets throughout Illinois and in adjacent media markets such as St. Louis. Compounding the error, an actual presidential code, minus any audio explanation, was sent rather than a lesser alert or a notification of a systems test of some kind. In some affected markets, the glitches resulted in interruptions of programming by the EAS tone, sometimes lasting three or four minutes at a time.
“If everything is set per the requirement, it should have taken over every radio, TV and cable system,” said Warren Shulz, Illinois’s EAS chairman and chief engineer for Citadel Broadcasting’s WLS-AM 890 and WZZN-FM 94.7 in Chicago, noting the state’s new EAS satellite hookup in Springfield had been wired in only a day earlier. “We did nothing incorrect in Illinois, other than hook up a new piece of equipment at the direction of a FEMA contractor,” Shulz said. “Someone at the other end … decided at 7:38 our time to start sending presidential alert codes. Wonderful thing to do.”
Michael: The text below should be in a blue box
The primary role of the Emergency Alert System is to allow the president to address the public during a national emergency, although it has never been used for that purpose. State and local officials also may use the system to alert the public.
An early version of the system, called CONELRAD, was introduced in 1951, in the midst of the cold war. In 1963 it was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System, which became the Emergency Alert System in 1994.
All broadcast TV and radio stations, cable TV systems, and satellite radio operators must participate in national alerts of the EAS, while participation in state and local alerts is voluntary. The system is run by the Federal Communications Commission, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service and the states. The national alert system is tested weekly using an eight-second digital signal. Local alerts are tested monthly.
