November 9, 2011 at 2pm EST, FEMA will be testing EAS with it’s first ever national level test. To promote that event, they have released a twenty eight page “tool kit,” (near the bottom of the page) designed to help everyone get through the test. It should be interesting. According to FEMA:
The nationwide EAS Test is not a pass or fail measure, nor will it specifically test Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) compliant equipment (although CAP compliant equipment should pass the Emergency Action Notification [EAN] live-code in the same manner as legacy EAS equipment).
They will release a Emergency Action Notification (EAN) to all the Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations, which should then flow down stream through all the radio, television, cable systems, and direct broadcast satellite systems. The test should last about two minutes and will conclude with a standard EOM.
I doubt very much it will sound like this:
That is WHEN, Syracuse, NY singing EBS test. A bit of originality there. WHEN played this for their weekly EBS test for the better part of the 70’s. Naturally, the FCC found out about it and told them to stop. Shame, really, it is kind of catchy.
If you have some spare time, download the tool kit and study up for the test.
There were several different singing EBS tests that were popular back in the 70’s. There was one that was part of the late Terry Moss’ “Cheap Radio Thrills” production package, there was one I believe from PAMS and the one demonstrated in the clip was, I believe, from the original TM productions and the late Tom Merriman. At the station I was on in my teens they aired a “Cheech and Chong” version – it wasn’t a “singing” version, per se, but did make the weekly test memorable. Obviously the FCC didn’t feel it was fitting given the serious of the subject and stations were discouraged from using anything other than a straight, announcement style for the test.