National Emergency Message

National Emergency Messages are treated the same as any other message transmitted over the Emergency Alert System, except that stations are required to relay them.{{Cite web |date=February 2, 2024 | title=Code of Federal Regulations|url=https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/section-11.54|access-date=February 2, 2024}} When a message is received, the receiver is to open an audio channel to the originating source until the End of Message (EOM) tones are received. After the EOM is received, stations will return to normal programming in order to broadcast immediate news coverage of the event. Formerly, stations would not resume broadcast until an Emergency Action Termination (SAME code: EAT) was issued.{{Cite web |date=10 January 2012 |title=Federal Communications Commission: Reviewing the Matter of the Emergency Alert System |url=https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-12-7A1.pdf |access-date=14 February 2023}}

Before the header codes and attention signal are sent, the participating station reads an introductory script.

"This is an Emergency Action Notification requested by the White House. All broadcast stations will follow activation procedures in the EAS Operating Handbook for a national level emergency. The President of the United States or his representative will shortly deliver a message over the Emergency Alert System.."

Emergency messages are then read in this order:

1. "We interrupt our programming; this is a national emergency. Important instructions will follow."
2. This is an Emergency Action Notification. All broadcast stations and cable systems shall transmit this Emergency Action Notification Message. This station has interrupted its regular programming at the request of the White House to participate in the Emergency Alert System. During this emergency, most stations will remain on the air providing news and information to the public in assigned areas. This is (station call name). We will continue to serve the (EAS Local Area name) area. If you are not in this Local Area, you should tune to stations providing news and information for your Local Area. You are listening to the Emergency Alert System serving the (EAS Local Area name) area. Do not use your telephone. The telephone lines should be kept open for emergency use. The Emergency Alert System has been activated.
3. We interrupt our programming at the request of the White House. This is the Emergency Alert System. All normal programming has been discontinued during this emergency. This is (station call name). This station will continue furnishing news, official information and instructions for the (EAS Local Area name) area. If you are not in (EAS Local Area name) area, you should tune to stations providing news and information for your area. It is important that you listen carefully to announcements from the station in your local area.
4. The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States government. This is not a test. I repeat, this is not a test.
5. National Information Center messages{{Efn|As of 2023, the National Information Center no longer exists. Subsequently, it has been removed from encoding software and is no longer an authorized event code.|name=NIC|group=lower-roman}}{{Cite web |date=2022-11-10 |title=The Emergency Alert System |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/11/10/2022-23408/the-emergency-alert-system |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=Federal Register |language=en}}

A standby script is used in the case there is no new information available.

The end-of-message codes are transmitted after presidential messages are read. The operator logs the time and date the alert was received, and monitors their EAS source.{{cite web |title=Emergency Alert System - 2007 TV (including Digital TV) Hndbook |url=https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-278628A5.pdf |accessdate=December 30, 2017}}

Image:WGN EBS EAN.JPG, Chicago, in 1985, during the period of the Emergency Broadcast System. This EAN announcement was never seen on the airwaves of WGN-TV itself but was posted to YouTube in March 2017.{{Citation|last=The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (www.FuzzyMemories.TV)|title=WGN Channel 9 - Emergency Broadcast System - "This is NOT a Test" (1985)|date=March 3, 2017|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TTEWRKnRC0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/4TTEWRKnRC0 |archive-date=December 21, 2021 |url-status=live|accessdate=April 26, 2017}}{{cbignore}}]]

The term "Emergency Action Notification" was created when the Emergency Broadcast System went into place in 1963. Before the mid-1970s, this was the only non-test activation permitted (the same rule also applied to the earlier CONELRAD system). The EAN signifies a national emergency, as the wording shows. The Office of Civil Defense originally created the term for the national emergency notification enactment. FEMA soon took over after its creation.

Unlike other messages, the EAN was not the alert itself, but rather a notice that the activation is beginning.{{cite web |title=FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.13 |url=http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47:1.0.1.1.11.1.239.5&idno=47 |work=Electronic Code of Federal Regulations |accessdate=September 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009064413/http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47%3A1.0.1.1.11.1.239.5&idno=47 |archivedate=October 9, 2012 }} After the End of Message (EOM) tones were sent, normal programming did not resume. Instead, most stations were to broadcast emergency information in a specific priority order. Messages from the President are always broadcast first. Next comes local messages, statewide and regional messages, and finally national messages not originating from the President.{{efn|Some documents refer to these as "messages from the National Information Center (or NIC)". While there is a SAME code for this type of message (NIC), there exists no FCC definition of the National Information Center.}}{{cite web |title=FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.44 |url=http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47:1.0.1.1.11.3.239.4&idno=47 |work=Electronic Code of Federal Regulations |accessdate=September 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009064424/http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47%3A1.0.1.1.11.3.239.4&idno=47 |archivedate=October 9, 2012 }} When an EAN was initially received, and during any time a new message was not available, an FCC mandated standby script was used (and repeated).{{cite web |title=FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.54 |url=http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47:1.0.1.1.11.4.239.4&idno=47 |work=Electronic Code of Federal Regulations |accessdate=September 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009064429/http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47%3A1.0.1.1.11.4.239.4&idno=47 |archivedate=October 9, 2012 }} Other stations, which held special permission from the FCC, would sign off until the end of the EAN.{{cite web |title=FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.41 |url=http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47:1.0.1.1.11.3.239.1&idno=47 |work=Electronic Code of Federal Regulations |accessdate=September 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009064445/http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=043b8e5d0d80fd6dca6acf1f271b1cfc&rgn=div8&view=text&node=47%3A1.0.1.1.11.3.239.1&idno=47 |archivedate=October 9, 2012 }}

Normal programming would not continue until the transmission of an Emergency Action Termination message (SAME code: EAT).

A properly authenticated Emergency Action Notification was incorrectly sent to United States broadcast at 9:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1971.{{cite web|title=Code Word "Hatefulness": The Great EBS Scare of 1971|date=September 15, 2010 |url=https://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/09/code-word-hatefulness-great-ebs-scare.html|publisher=CONELRAD Adjacent|accessdate=October 7, 2013}} At the usual time, a weekly EAN test was performed. NORAD teletype operator W.S. Eberhardt had three tapes in front of him: a test tape, and 2 tapes indicating a real emergency, instructing the use of EAN Message #1, and #2, respectively. He accidentally used the wrong tape, with codeword "HATEFULNESS". This message ordered stations to cease regular programming immediately, and begin an Emergency Action Notification using Message #1.(Timestamp to WCCO white card script instruction) {{Citation|last=2001scoop, W6LDS|title=1971 False Emergency Broadcast System EAN (Heard On WOWO-AM And WCCO-AM)|date=September 16, 2012|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B1EAeh6H_I&t=384|accessdate=May 22, 2018}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}}{{Cite web|url=http://ebstest.stlmedia.net/pix/ebsaccident1.jpg|title=EAN Teletype message (February 20, 1971 09:33 EST)|date=October 16, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016190942/http://ebstest.stlmedia.net/pix/ebsaccident1.jpg|archive-date=October 16, 2014|url-status=dead|access-date=May 22, 2018}} Message 1 states that regular programming has been interrupted at the request of the United States government, but is not specific about the cause.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ae5d.com/ebs.html|title=The EBS Authenticator Word List|website=www.ae5d.com|access-date=May 22, 2018}} A cancellation message was sent at 9:59 a.m. EST, but the message's codeword, "HATEFULNESS" again, was incorrect.{{cite web|url=http://ebstest.stlmedia.net/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121195955/http://ebstest.stlmedia.net/|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 21, 2013|title=The Great Accidental Test Broadcast of 1971|accessdate=October 7, 2013}} A cancellation message with the correct codeword, "IMPISH", was not sent until 10:13 a.m. EST. After 40 minutes and six incorrect or improperly formatted cancellation messages, the accidental activation was officially terminated.

On April 21, 1997, several television and radio stations in Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Ohio mistakenly received a false EAN. Early indications pointed to a human error at the National Emergency Coordination Center in Virginia that routed a test requested by a relay for the Chicago area to test out one radio station's then-new EAS equipment.{{cite web|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC-Engineering/Radio-World-Modern/2000/Radio-World-2000-09-27.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230523232943/https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-BC-Engineering/Radio-World-Modern/2000/Radio-World-2000-09-27.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 23, 2023|title=When The Emergency Alert System Goes Wrong|accessdate=May 24, 2023}}

On June 26, 2007, an EAN was accidentally activated for the state of Illinois, when new satellite delivery equipment for the EAS was accidentally left connected to a live network during what was meant to be a closed-circuit test.{{cite web|url=http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Emergency.Alert.System.2.337932.html |title=Emergency Alert System Activated By Mistake |website=cbs2chicago.com |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080806205146/http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Emergency.Alert.System.2.337932.html |archivedate=August 6, 2008}}{{cite news |title=Inadvertent Activation of the Illinois Emergency Alert System |url=http://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/eas.shtm |publisher=FEMA |date=June 28, 2007 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717212239/http://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/eas.shtm |archivedate=July 17, 2007 }}

On October 24, 2014, Bobby Bones' syndicated radio program broadcast audio from the 2011 national test of the EAS (the only one that was coded as an EAN), during a segment where he ranted over his local Fox affiliate's scheduling of an EAS test during a World Series game. The broadcast triggered the EAS on some broadcasters and cable systems; the program's distributor iHeartMedia was fined $1 million by the FCC for the incident.{{Cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/multi-state-cascade-of-false-emergency-alerts-nets-1-million-fine/|title="Multi-state cascade" of false emergency alerts nets $1 million fine|last=Brodkin|first=Jon|date=May 19, 2015|website=Ars Technica|language=en-us|access-date=May 29, 2019}}

In 2016 or 2017, KUCO-LD in the Sacramento Valley area of California conducted an unauthorized test of the EAS. However, the message read in Spanish said that the activation was for an Emergency Action Notification relaying from station K20FZ. It was due to a wrong video cartridge being inserted instead of an EAS test cartridge.[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F8vwVx6QkhU Emergency Action Notification Mistake? (AKA: Spanish EAS?)] - YouTube (uploaded May 24, 2017)

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Category:Emergency Alert System

Category:1963 establishments in the United States