What if there was an Emergency Alert

OFF the BEAT

ROBERT L. SPINKS, MA, MS

COMMENTATOR

WHAT IF THERE WAS AN EMERGENCY ALERT Published on Wed, Nov 16, 2011 by Robert Spinks, MA, MS http://www.sequimgazette.com/spinks The national Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) had its first nationwide test in its 14-year history last Wednesday, November 9th at 11am (Pacific). Local radio stations KONP (1450 AM), KPTZ (91.9 FM) and KSQM (91.5 FM) each received the alert signal, but like thousands of stations nationwide received just a garbled voice transmission from the EBS.

In 1951, there was the Korean War, concerns about Communism, spies and nuclear war. That same year President Harry Truman established CONELRAD (CONtrol of ELectronic RADiation). CONELRAD was the first nationwide attempt by the federal government to provide a system of official broadcasts in the event of a nationwide emergency or nuclear attack.

According to KSQM General Manager Jeff Bankston, “I'm worried that folks on the Peninsula who heard or didn't hear that alert test will think they can't get emergency information and they can. The EAS is just one of several links that KSQM and other stations rely upon, and the EAS works great at the regional and state levels. There are just some glitches if President Obama wants to pick up his microphone and start broadcasting in unison on the nation’s 14,865 radio and some 2,000 TV stations.”

A SYSTEM IS BORN In 1938 there was a stampede to evacuate New York City when Orson Wells dramatized "War of the Worlds" on the CBS network. That event and aeronautical capabilities by the end of the 1940’s, meant that a hostile nation’s bombers could reach American cities with nuclear bombs; a warning system was needed to reach all Americans.

Today the Emergency Alert System (EAS) serves the nation and is the decedent of CONELRAD, which was Page 1 of 4

then followed by the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS). The Emergency Alert System (EAS), links the majority of the nation’s 14,865 AM and FM radio stations and more than 2,000 TV stations together to broadcast nationwide emergency messages.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1942 had Japanese planes using radio detection equipment to fly to their targets using radio waves coming from Hawaiian radio stations. In 1951, planners didn’t want Russian bombers doing the same thing.

CIVIL DEFENSE

It wasn’t until 1950 that there was an organized civil defense program in the United States. Programs focused primarily on evacuating large cities, stocked fallout shelters in public buildings and supported the construction of backyard fallout shelters.

Radios manufactured in the U.S. between 1953 and 1963, were required by law to have triangles printed on their dials at the two CONELRAD station frequencies of 640 and 1240 kHz. You can still see those triangles if you visit an antique store that has radios from that era.

In 1955, Portland, OR carried out ‘Operation Greenlight’ and successfully evacuated the city center in just 19 minutes as part of a rare full scale civil defense drill.

Victoreen Civil Defense V-777-1 shelter radiation detection kit

Radiation detection kits, (like the one pictured above) were mass produced in the 1950’s and distributed to fallout shelters, civil defense officials and to law enforcement agencies. The Sequim Police Department still possessed their shelter radiation kit when I was Chief of Police.

Civil Defense has evolved from its early days when efforts focused on preparing for nuclear war, using ‘Bert the Turtle’ as a spokesperson from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. Bert’s message of ‘duck and cover’ was well known to the children and families of that era.

In 1951, had there been a nuclear war, all television and FM radio stations would have ceased broadcasting and most AM stations would have gone silent with the remaining broadcasters switching to either 640 or 1240kHz on the AM dial. These CONELRAD stations, would switch radio broadcasts from station to station in a geographic area so no enemy direction finding equipment could lock onto accurate transmitter locations in the US.

CONELRAD ACTIVATED In 1956, a nationwide broadcast test of CONELRAD where every AM radio station either went off the air or switched to 640 or 1240 kHz and successfully broadcast a 15 minute Civil Defense message.

The system was put on standby during the height of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. On Friday, October 26, the U.S. Strategic Air Command initiated DEFCON II

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(Code Red) status. This remains the highest DEFCON threat level ever officially confirmed. Nuclear armed interceptors and bombers were either on airborne alert or staged at fifteen-minute readiness status. Tensions were further strained that same day when an American U2 spy plane was shot down near Cuba by a pair of Soviet surface-to-air missiles.

That evening, radio station operators were told to stand by and prepare to initiate CONELRAD operations at any time after 10 am the following morning. Russia ended the crisis at 9 am by turning back its cargo ships at that were bound to Cuba loaded with additional nuclear missiles, and to remove existing nuclear missiles from the island nation.

stations across the country that required a two-step confirmation process to reduce the chance of a future false alert.

EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM In November of 1994 the current Emergency Alert System (EAS) was approved by the FCC, and became operational on January 1, 1997.

EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM

The EAS has been a reliable system that is routinely activated at the State and local levels. I’ve experienced first-hand while traveling in the east EAS activations to alert radio listeners of severe weather, thunderstorms and tornados. Being a west coaster, the first few times I heard these emergency announcements it was unnerving to say the least.

CONELRAD was replaced in 1963 by the EBS (Emergency Broadcast System). Originally, stations were to test the EBS weekly. The weekly test required that the radio transmitter be turned off and on for 5 seconds twice, then a tone was broadcast and a test message was read. It was not uncommon for transmitters with their 1960’s technology to fail and not power back up after these tests.

“All radio and television programming across the country was interrupted at approximately 11:00 am” this past Wednesday according to KSQM Executive Director/General Manager Jeff Bankston, “and KSQM was a participant in this first-ever nationwide test” of the EAS. The test was initiated in Washington, DC and occupied forty seconds of elapsed broadcast time for KSQM in Sequim.

The EBS at the national level was activated by Civil Defense officials at the North American Air Defense Command Headquarters near Colorado Springs. Test messages were sent twice a week in the 1960’s and 70’s via news service teletype machines of United Press International (UPI) and the Associated Press (AP) that provided news stories to radio, TV and newspapers.

Listeners and broadcasters throughout the nation reported that the twenty second audio portion of the test may have been “garbled” or inaudible. The Emergency Alert System overrides the normal programming at KSQM as it does at other radio stations, so the quality and clarity of the EAS transmission cannot be guaranteed by any individual radio station.

On Saturday, February 20, 1971 at 6:33am (Pacific) the EBS was accidently activated nationwide, sending alert messages across America.

According to KSQM routine local and regional tests and activation of the EAS have proven to be successful since KSQM began broadcasting in December of 2008.

That Saturday, the erroneous teletype alert message began, “This is an Emergency Action Notification (EAN) directed by the President. Normal broadcasting will cease immediately. All stations will broadcast EAN Message One preceded by the attention signal, Per FCC Rules.”

KSQM maintains a partnership with county and state emergency management authorities. The EAS is supplemented locally by additional emergency information sources that include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Clallam County Emergency Management Division, State of Washington Emergency Management Department, and According to the original UPI news story by Andrew other state, county and city agencies. The Amber Alert McGill, one Virginia Broadcaster was quoted, “We’re System is another user of the EAS and that system has considering billing NORAD for three sets of worked flawlessly across Washington and on KSQM. underwear.”

In the event of an actual emergency, KSQM would continue broadcasting official news and information, as directed by local, state and national authorities, The false alert resulted in an upgrade to the EBS system notwithstanding any transmission failure of the EAS in 1976 with new equipment being installed at radio according to Bankston.

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It’s important to note the EAS has never been tested on this type of nationwide level before, but it is tested regularly and successfully on the local level during weekly and monthly tests. The purpose of this nationwide test, as communicated by federal officials, was to learn whether the legacy equipment could be counted on to deliver an emergency message from the President to all TV and radio outlets across the U.S. on short notice. Because of EAS failures in cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco as well as rural locations including the entire state of Oregon, the FCC has already announced an investigation into system vulnerabilities which will dovetail with an already planned multi-year EAS modernization project.

Today an all hazards approach for Emergency Management agencies had replaced the old civil defense operations. The focus of emergency management covers a wide range of disaster and hazard risks ranging from tornados, floods, tsunami, and earthquakes to terrorism.

Emergency management responsibilities now generally fall to county government. In Clallam County, the Sheriff’s Office manages emergency management duties and is linked to the Washington Military Department at Camp Murray, which coordinates response to about 4,000 incidents annually including floods, rescues, and alerts as well as oversight for the statewide Enhanced 9-1-1 telephone system.

Stay tuned!

Robert Spinks is former Sequim chief of police and Interim City Manager. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Sequim Senior Activity Center and the Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), is a volunteer Manager at KSQM 91.5 FM and an Adjunct Faculty member at Everest University. He served as the Emergency Management Director for the cities of Sedro-Woolley (OR) and in Sequim while Chief of Police. Reach him at robertbythebay@aol.com .

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