WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Tests the Emergency Broadcast System 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios, 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:14.080 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.880 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.280 How Stuff Works and I Heart Radio and I love 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.800 all things tech. Today, it's time for another classic episode 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.320 of tech Stuff. This one originally aired on August one, 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.720 two thousand twelve, and it is titled tech Stuff Tests 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.560 the Emergency Broadcast System. Chris Pilette and I decided to 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.080 sit down and really learn about the history of the 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.320 emergency broadcast system. What does it really mean? And maybe 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.360 you've actually turned on the TV when one of those 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.159 tests were going on and wondered what the heck is happening. 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.640 This show should answer all those questions, So take it away, 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:58.720 Chris and younger me. So, we wanted to do an 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.640 episode about the emergence see broadcast system. This was actually 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:03.600 a request that was sent in by a couple of 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:08.320 different listeners, which is interesting because it doesn't really technically 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.680 exist anymore. Now we have a new system in the 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.600 United States called the Emergency Alert System. Also, I should 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.160 apologize to all of our listeners from places other than 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.480 the United States. This is a very United States centric podcast. 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.120 But it's interesting anyway, trust me. Well it's it's become 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.160 something that's, uh, that's important in most situations too. I 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:32.119 mean they're they're uh tragedies and big events that happen 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:34.679 in places all over the world, so that the question 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.720 is you've got a country, um, you know, it doesn't 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:39.559 have to necessarily be the United States. We have a country, 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.360 have millions of people living there, and something is happening, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.520 there's an earthquake or a tsunami or uh, some other 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.160 kind of accident um or another country is invading or 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:50.840 something like that. You know, something big where you need 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.920 to tell people, Hey, look out, there's something you need 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:55.560 to evacuate, you need to get out of there. How 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.480 do you address so many people in a short time? Now, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.720 for the United States, what inspired this was the need 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.920 to reach out to people during World War two, um, 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.280 and there wasn't a system and subsequently the Cold War. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.680 Yeah yeah, well, I mean the the whole uh, the 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.160 end of the the Second World War and it of 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.680 course with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.200 and um, you know, it was apparent because other countries 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.680 had that technology pretty much right away, and that that 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.960 The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:32.280 Union began shortly after that, and then there was a 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.520 UM there was a big fear in the United States, 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.639 but about um, what would happen if the Soviet Union 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.920 launched a nuclear attack on the United States? How do 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.520 you warn people? And they said, well, you know, judging 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.480 by what we did in World War Two, that was 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.800 fairly effective. But we need a system, we need we 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:54.640 need to plan, we need to figure out how we 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.240 can do this effectively and let everybody know in a 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.120 short period of time because we're not going to have 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:01.600 long we need to have a short period of time, 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.160 a message in place. How can we reach out to people? 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.000 And that was basically the birth of UM what now 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.840 is the Emergency Alert System, but at that point was 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:19.240 known as connal rad yes uh in fact, which wasn't 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:20.959 by the way, kind of sort of an acronym for 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:25.240 a control of electromagnetic radiation which is kind of terrifying, right, 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.400 But that was established in ninety one by under the 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:33.800 administration of Harry S. Truman. Quick Quick Quick Trivia was 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.960 the S stand for nothing. That's right, Harry S. Truman 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.760 stood for nothing. Wait, no, that's not right. Nothing. He 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:42.720 just wanted it. He liked it sort of, you know, 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.520 like Michael J. So you don't say like the S 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.400 stands for nothing, like nothing isn't spelled with S. I 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.480 don't mean to confuse you. The S doesn't mean anything. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:55.560 So control of electromagnetic radiation getting back on track. Prior 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.960 to ninety one, these alerts went out over radio station. 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:02.200 They would get like an emergency bulletin, and it was 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:03.920 pretty much up to the station whether or not they 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.440 read it. Um conal Red kind of established a specific 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.720 protocol that needed to be followed in the event of 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.960 an emergency, and originally the idea was that it would 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.839 alert citizens of the United States of an impending attack 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.160 from the Soviet Union. In those days, we're talking about 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.680 before intercontinental ballistic missiles, so these attacks would take the 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:29.160 form of bombers flying overhead, and so conal Red had 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.840 two main purposes. Really, one was to issue alerts to 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.880 citizens to try and get them to safety as soon 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:37.920 as possible in the case of the attack, and the 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:42.039 second was to minimize the ability of the Soviets to 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:47.720 target UH specific areas based on radio frequencies. So part 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.119 of the connal Red protocol was that radio stations would 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:55.560 shut down and they would only uh broadcast in a 0:04:55.600 --> 0:05:00.479 certain amount of time and under certain frequencies. So under 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.719 the Comrade protocol you essentially had this. This is what 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.320 would happen if if someone were to issue alert. By 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.160 the way, no alert was ever issued. It was originally 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.479 called a key station system, and the idea was that 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.479 you had these dedicated telephone circuits that connected the Air 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:20.480 Defense control centers to certain key radio stations called basic 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.760 key stations. If there were an appending attack, the Air 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.200 Defense Control center would issue the alert to the key 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.120 radio stations, these basic key stations that would then issue 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.839 that same alert to relay key stations. These would be 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.560 smaller regional radio stations. Uh so they it was sort 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.480 of a hierarchy, right, It went from Air Defense Control 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.279 centers to a certain number of basic radio stations to 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.200 every other radio station. Once they received the alert, the 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.200 radio stations would then broadcast a predetermined message out to 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:52.880 the listeners. And the way it would work is that 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.360 the stations would turn off for five seconds, so they 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.360 had stopped transmitting for five seconds, come back on for 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.839 five seconds, go off for five more seconds, then come 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.600 on and transmit a tone for fifteen seconds. Now, this 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.320 was the the audible alert saying something is up. You 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.520 get the predetermined message. Uh, actually we're really What you 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.760 had to do was tuned to one of two frequencies. 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:19.320 There was a frequency kill hurts frequency and the forty 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.880 kill hurts frequency. Now, these two frequencies were the only 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.839 two that were authorized to broadcast during one of these emergencies. 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.120 And uh, on radios at the time, you would see 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:35.400 this little symbol over those those frequencies and it was 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:40.000 a triangle inside a circle, and that's the Civil Defense mark. Yeah, 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.960 you might remember the symbol sort of red, white and 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.120 blue if you've seen it around and uh it's still 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.920 not terribly uncommon to see it every once in a 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.440 while someplace. So yeah, but that was that was saying like, 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.880 these are the two frequencies. If you if your favorite 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.200 radio station isn't on, tune into this station because this 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.400 is where the information is going to come from. Uh. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.919 It was not the best system for a couple of 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.719 different reasons. One was that it was prone to false 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.440 alarms if like an electrical storm could set off a 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.240 false alarm, because you're talking about electricity and radio frequencies. 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.480 There is a relationship there and we have talked about 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:20.320 that extensively on this podcast. So listen to our episodes 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.280 about radio to learn more about electromagnetism, radio waves, and 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.840 electricity because I can't go into it here. But the 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.600 the lightning strikes could cause false alarms, which is, you know, 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.440 a bad thing if if you've been told that this 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.680 alert system means that there's an impending attack from Soviet planes, 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:42.040 it might cause a little stress. Also, the switching mechanism, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:44.760 because it would make transmitters switch on and off in 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.160 this this UH, the sequence could cause transmitters to fail 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.560 over time, just from powering up and powering down so 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.600 frequently within a certain amount of time. And then of 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.960 course UH this whole system, this idea of cutting off 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.280 radio contact so that you could minimize the ability for 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:09.400 Soviets to target in on specific regions. It became meaningless 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:14.520 once intercontinental ballistic missiles became a real thing, right because 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.240 now you're not talking about planes anymore. You're talking about 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:22.920 guided missiles and uh or at least targeted missiles. So 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.200 it became clear that connal red was starting to no 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:32.000 longer be very relevant. So they the government started to think, well, 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.440 what can we do that will provide a similar method 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.360 for us to message out emergency notices, but use a 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.200 different approach, and that was what sort of led into 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:47.120 the development of the Emergency Broadcast System e B S. 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:52.880 YEP in ne EBS made its debut um and uh 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:55.840 again it it never was used, of course, to uh, 0:08:55.880 --> 0:09:00.160 to communicate the threat of war. Not on purpose. We'll 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:05.120 get but I'm assuming that you listened to the w 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:10.360 O w Um. We'll get to that. But yeah, I 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.199 mean it was a much more robust system. Um. And 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.520 it's during the Kennedy administration for those of you keeping track, yep, 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.120 yep and um. One of the nice things about it 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.840 is uh here again, well you could kind of tell 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.880 kind of judge the mood too. Um. If you had 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:31.960 heard something come over conald Rad, you probably immediately would 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.680 have thought war. But EBS was actually used for other 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:40.120 things too. I remember weather alerts coming in using the 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:42.679 exact same thing, and so you would hear and this 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.640 was used on multiple radio stations. You didn't necessarily have 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.960 to tune into one radio station to get your information. 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.760 It would be broadcast over TV and radio. Because you 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.480 no longer had to worry about that targeting issue. Then 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.360 meant that all the stations could be used instead of 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.520 having to tune into a specific one while everything else 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:02.920 is turned off. And hey, that's more effective anyway to 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:06.280 reach people. Um. But yeah, you would hear this this 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.720 tone which it's hard to explain it if you've never 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.520 heard it. You're splitting other than you're splitting and annoying 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.640 between it does get your attention. Apparently, it's the combined 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.920 the sign waves of eight hundred and fifty three hurts 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:25.160 and nine sixty hurts specifically chosen because it does grab 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.520 your attention because it's very jarring to hear it. It's 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:33.120 just you you can't ignore it. If you can hear 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.080 you can't ignore it. That's that's true. Um. And of course, uh, 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:38.959 those of us who are familiar with it other than 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.400 you know, being living somewhere where they're multiple weather uh 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.080 situations like tornadoes or tornadoes. Yeah, no kidding, Um, you 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:51.000 would probably have heard this through the the alerts which 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.800 Jonathan and I grew up with, which was testing. Yeah, 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:55.920 they would say they would come on and say, well, 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.280 this is a test of the emergency broadcast system and 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.760 the next sixty seconds, we will be testing out the 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:02.880 emergency broadcast system. It would there was actually a very 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.679 specific script that would fall and then there would be 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.600 after they would tell you there's a test coming. They 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.200 would play this tone, and then there'd be another message 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:13.840 that would appear at the end saying this was a 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.120 test the emergency broadcast system. If this had been a 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.160 real emergency, you would have received more information at this 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.960 point alerting you to blah blah blah, blah blah, we 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.640 now return you to your regularly scheduled programming type stuff. 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.199 And they were required to do this test once a week. Yeah, regular, 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:29.920 on a regular basis. I didn't think it was quite 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.600 that frequently. It was once a week unless you had 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:37.000 actually had to issue a real alert. If you had 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.319 to issue a real alert, could skip over some time. 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.320 But it was once a week at essentially a random 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:46.480 time between eight thirty in the morning and sunset at night, uh, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.880 sometime during the week. So it wasn't that we'll get 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.600 into this too. There wasn't a time where every single 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.240 station had to do it at the same time. It 0:11:55.280 --> 0:12:00.199 was unique to the various stations. And like you were saying, us, 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:02.760 you know these alerts went out not just for a 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.760 national emergency. In fact, they never went out on purpose 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.440 for a national emergency instead. Uh so so never it 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.320 was never used purposefully For that reason, even though that 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.760 was the genesis of this system, it was used more 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.199 than oh, I don't know, several thousand times to alert 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:24.360 for civil emergencies, sometimes an alert about to be on 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.800 the lookout for a suspect in a in a particularly 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.720 nasty crime that could be an alert, or for the 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:32.960 weather alerts like the ones that Chris and I grew 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:39.040 up with. I can remember that happening so many times. Well. 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:44.120 The uh the way the emergency broadcast system worked was 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:48.840 that the only message that no station could ignore or 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.120 was supposed to ignore, was a national one. Right, So, 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.160 if you are a radio station in the middle of 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.200 nowhere and the national alert goes out, you were supposed 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.600 to to broadcast it just like every other station in 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.920 the country, whereas if it were a local or regional 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.439 you may or may not have been able to ignore 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.160 that message and not broadcast it. The way it worked 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.920 was that, again like the Connell red system, where you 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.560 had the key stations, the basic key stations, and the 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:21.080 relay key stations. There was a similar setup for the 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:26.119 emergency broadcast system. You had these primary points of contact, 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:30.120 which would be major broadcast stations usually, but these primary 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.560 points of contact had to issue all broadcast all the 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:35.920 alerts they got. They had no choice because they were 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.640 a primary point of contact. But if you were further 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.280 down the chain, like you are a secondary point or 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.880 further down, then you could elect whether or not to 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.680 broadcast that alert, assuming it wasn't a national alert that 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.040 was the only one. Of course, everyone had to broadcast. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.280 So um, you know there were that That explains why 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.920 you might be in an area where a weather service 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.920 alert is being broadcast, asked, and you saw it on 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.280 one channel, but you switched to another local channel, and 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.040 there's nothing that could be why. It may be that 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.240 that other channels not a primary point and therefore was 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:15.200 not required to broadcast it. Beebe. This is not a test. 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.160 This is actually us going into a commercial break. See 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:29.400 you on the flip side. Now, the the incident that 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:33.640 Jonathan mentioned, famous incident. Now I read an account of 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:36.760 this from a person who was working at a radio 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.400 station in St. Louis at the time it happened. Um, 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.360 at the time it happened, by the way, is February. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.840 And what he had said was that every Saturday at 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.840 ten thirty three, the radio stations would receive a test 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:58.240 message from Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. And so basically it 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.240 would say and there was a code word that it 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.520 would include that would let you know that it was 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.000 was genuine. And so at ten thirty three, um, there 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:10.960 there was a teletype machine in the other room and 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.120 he heard it and and typically it would it would 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.120 dig a couple of times to let you know, hey, 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.840 there's something something on the wire, you know, a news 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.600 story on the wire. But this one rang ten times, 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.360 which he knew was a big deal. Um. And so 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.160 he ran into the other room and got a message 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:33.840 that said he needed to broadcast a warning that there 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.640 was an announcement coming from the national you know, from 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.520 the federal government and it was something bad and impending, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.440 and be on the alert because it was time to 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.080 broadcast a message. But they really weren't told what that 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:52.040 message was. What it was. Well, see here's the thing. Hateful, hateful, 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.000 the you know, which was a code word, meaning that 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.160 the code that was actually a code word. The hateful 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.080 was a code word that meant there's a message is 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.720 coming up, there's an attack coming up, but more details 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.520 will follow. Go ahead and initiate the alert system. And 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.960 it was a mistake that was made by a teletype 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.920 operator who sent this authenticated code out to the system, 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.400 which meant it went to all those those primary points 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.520 of contact, and it didn't say it didn't say a 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.800 minute later, oops, my bad. No, no, it took a while, 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.200 and in fact, the first time they tried to resend it, 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.400 they sent the wrong code, so it didn't resend the message. 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.960 It was only forty minutes after the initial message was 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:36.520 sent out that the cancelation, the correct cancelation went out. 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.359 So what happened was actually very telling in a way 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.920 because some radio, radio and television stations, actually a lot 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.360 of them, didn't do anything at all, so they did 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.760 not broadcast this message, and that, in a way is 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.680 a problem because the whole purpose of the system is 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.800 to relay a national emergency to everybody. Now. Now, in 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:58.680 many of these cases, it may be that the people 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.000 in charge said, there's no information here, we have no 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.159 real I mean, it's a confirmed code, but there's no 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:09.160 confirmed information and we have nothing to share with people. 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.800 So Why would we go ahead and do this when 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:14.000 we don't have any information we could give them. Yeah, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:18.639 they were standing by to broadcast whatever the major announcement 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.119 was about the attack. Right. Some of them hadn't even 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.760 signaled the alert, right, They just the programming just kept 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.920 on going. But other stations did. Some of them didn't 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.720 know what to do, so some of them weren't doing 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:33.400 it on purpose. Some of them weren't doing it because 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.119 they didn't know what they were supposed to do. And 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.399 a few actually broke into programming and said, we've received 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.359 an alert from the Emergency Broadcast System. We know that 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.959 there is a national emergency. We're a waiting for more information. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.800 Please stand by. And what Chris was talking about earlier 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.679 was there are a couple of recordings on the internet 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.840 you can listen to that were taken from that day. 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.520 And one of them is from an radio station from 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:00.640 Fort Wayne, Indiana called w ow OH, and you can 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.720 listen to that and you can find it on the internet. 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.600 The actual it's snippets from that. It's it's been edited. 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.960 It's sorry, it's been edited down so that you get 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.679 uh sections, the important sections of of the broadcast. It's 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.360 about what six minutes or so long, keeping in mind 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:20.639 that that whole window was more like forty minutes. So 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.760 this is six minutes of footage footage from six minutes 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.520 of content from that forty minute window. Yeah. So basically 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.440 what it said was, you know, hey, there there's something 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.000 coming up. It's it's um. It's one of those things 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.320 that would be funny. If it weren't, if you don't 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.800 put yourself back at that time, I would have been terrifying. 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.360 It would have been terrifying because he's the person who 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.160 was on the air. Was a you could tell, was it, uh, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.240 seasoned newsperson? Yeah, yeah, he Uh. He was very serious 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:48.800 and said, you know, there's there's been a message. We're 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.560 waiting word for what's going on. Uh. If you are 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.919 listening and you are one of our reporters, come here immediately. 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:59.240 We need you here right now. And and basically was talking, uh, 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.680 not only to the audience, but to the the other 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.720 reporters who might be listening. The message itself actually said, 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.600 UM message authenticator, hatefulness, hatefulness. This is an emergency action 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:14.320 notification directed by the President. Normal broadcasting will cease immediately. 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.080 All stations will broadcast e A N message one preceded 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.480 by the attention signal. Per FCC rules, only stations holding 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:24.320 nd N D E A may stay on the air 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.480 and according and accord with State E B S plan. 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:33.960 And uh that would have scared the pants off of me. Um. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.439 And it took a while, as Jonathan said, uh, you know, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.960 kill e A N message. It was sent in error 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.000 and it took a while for it to uh to 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.800 show up. But the person he the person who I was, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:47.399 I was reading, I should have gotten the the U 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:48.840 R L if I can find it real quick for 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.639 you guys, I will um. The the person who was, 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:57.840 who has actually posted photos of scans of his copies 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:02.440 of these messages, was saying, excuse the burn marks. I 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.440 was smoking pretty heavily through this incidents. It was kind 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.320 of stressed out. If you listen to the recording from 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:15.000 the w O w oh incident, you actually hear the 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:19.520 the newscaster kind of chuckling once the once the order 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.720 was sent out about this was a mistake, and you know, 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:24.760 kind of kind of because you know, clearly it was 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:26.840 one of those stressful things and the chuckling is him 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.000 releasing that stress, and it is an interesting moment in 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.640 history to kind of pick up on that. Um So, yeah, 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.679 not that was the only time that a national alert 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.000 went out across the system. And again it wasn't a 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:44.360 real one, it was a mistake. UM. And then what 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.840 was supposed to happen is that, depending upon the nature 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.320 of the emergency UH, stations are supposed to read from 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.840 a predetermined script like it's it's They're not supposed to 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.200 just you know, kind of provide commentary on it. There's 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:01.680 a specific message that needs to be relayed and um. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.840 So that was the general purpose of the Emergency Broadcast System, 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.600 but it was starting to show its age, UH, particularly 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.080 in the nineties, because you started to have other methods 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:17.159 of getting content on your television besides broadcast TV, and 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:21.520 the Emergency Broadcast System really affected radio and broadcast television. 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.919 So there needed to be an overhaul of the system, 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.200 and that's what happened in the late nineties, and in 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.960 ninety eight you had the Emergency Alert System take its place. 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:35.360 And now you might say, well, what's the difference. Well, 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.119 for one thing, it doesn't just include broadcast stations. It 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:43.120 also includes cable and participating satellite systems. So now you've 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.960 got other methods of broadcast or or you know, other 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:50.120 methods of getting content over your television included in this. 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.480 So that way, if a citizen is watching cable television 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.800 or something on satellite TV, they could still have access 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:02.080 to an emergency message because clearly, you know, you don't 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.720 want to leave everybody out. As as people have more 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.639 and more ways of watching stuff, it's harder to reach 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.040 them in a centralized way. Yeah, these these systems were 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:14.760 developed to run on AM and FM radio and the 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:17.840 local broadcast stations. So now we've gone from in the 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:22.000 United States, UM, let's say, on average, probably three or 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.159 four regular network broadcast stations, maybe a couple independence in 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:29.160 the larger you know, larger cities, something in the ultra 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:33.320 high frequency. Yeah, you know, maybe six or six to 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.119 ten stations in big big markets. Um. Then you go 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:40.840 to dozens or even hundreds of stations now with cable 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:44.639 and satellite UM, you know, plus uh, you know the 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:48.760 radio stations which have exploded in number, um, satellite radio 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:50.760 and all the other media that we listen to. Now. 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:53.480 So yeah, the system, there's a lot of people, know, 0:22:53.560 --> 0:22:57.159 the system needed to to evolve with that development, and 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:00.240