First of all, 9/11 was over 20 years ago. The first iPhone was still 6 years in the future.
And let's talk about how useful it is to harden AM facilities today. We have already seen how AM radio, even in a major market like Houston, had no newsroom staff to cover the 2021 Texas ice storm emergency. The market's biggest "News Talk" station aired syndicated conservative bluster while cell phone service was down and no emergency information about warming shelters or anything else was to be found on AM, or anywhere else on the radio. Nearly 250 people died in that event.
How about the recent East Palestine, Ohio train derailment? There's another thread on this site detailing the lack of radio coverage about that while the disaster was underway. Again, where were the radio newsrooms? Long gone, and even in the few places where they still exist those stations have mostly migrated to FM. And if anyone ever activated an EAS alert it would be heard on FM too.
I take exception to the myth that the radio industry keeps trotting out about how valuable it still is in an emergency these days, only to be proven wrong when things actually happen.
First of all, during 9-11 the percentage of people who had cell phones wasn't much less than today. Flip phones were all over the place. There were many calls and texts from the airplanes to their relatives on the ground, and calls and texts from the people in the towers to their relatives. The main changes to the cell system have been going from 2G and 3G to 4G and 5G. But cell phones were almost as widespread as they are today. So when FEMA insisted on hardening some AM stations (and I think some FMs were hardened as well), they already were aware of the widespread use of cell phones.
I live in 9 point earthquake territory. Wnen it hits -- and it's a when, not an if -- the cell system will fail. It may last a day or two, depending on whether most of the towers survive in the most affected areas, and how long the generators last at towers equipped with them. Every cell phone has a battery, and that battery depends on power, and there will be no power. Every cell phone depends on the cell towers, and they have limited battery capacity, even for emergencies.
FEMA has stated that when that earthquake hits, power will probably be out in many areas for several months. FEMA also has stated that AM radio may be the only means of communication west of I-5, as FM may be down / lacking electricity or backup / lacking internet access for optaining information / etc. The local emergency liaison program between citizens and the local government here where I live is looking into having kiosks or bulletin boards in neighborhoods because they realize that a massive earthquake could take a lot of the power out. They understand the limitations of relying on cell service in great disasters.
As for your points on the radio newsrooms -- understood. The facilities in the case you mentioned were underutilized. That's the fault of the station and networks' managements, and probably the state and federal government's lack of use of the AM facilities that you yourself admit were on the air when the cell systems were down. You're proving my point about the validity of AM transmitters as emergency infrastructure.
The fact that the infrastructure was not used as intended is a programming issue.
I am in total agreement with your last statement. If the emergency infrastructure is not used during emergencies, that is a problem.
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