National EAS a disaster in it self here in Rhode Island.

[Kenny Atkinson]

I've worked in markets where local administrators didn't know how to get the EAS system to function..if September 11 was an indication, no one at any level even thought about triggering the thing..and what would they have relayed if they did that wasn't already on radio or TV?

This also brings up another issue..most of us working in the business are at locations where a news network affliation is already in place..if we had a real problem, we'd simply join ABC, CBS, or whatever network, and go from there..and there are rules in place that would allow stations to pick up feeds if needed..so there's your system, right there..if what we heard yesterday was any indication, the EAS needs plenty of work..or its needs to be scrapped...

Let me ask you this..If I were an independent radio station no news network at all and I wanted to get something on this news.I could broadcast any news I wanted to to get the message out and not asking

 

[jlehmann]

Here's what it sounded like on 790, and since I believe most stations relay 790

All stations relay 105.1, which is the LP1 for the state.

NOAA or 790 are the LP2s.

In RI, the national message was overlayed by itself a few times resulting in a big mess. It was so bad that when the EOM was sent out, the boxes couldn't decode it and stayed on. Then when the test ended, some talk show, I don't even know which one, was coming over. Eventually Cumulus engineering on Wampanoag Trail fired off an EOM code, so all our boxes would transmit an EOM and get that garbage off the air.

All in all, it was a big failure.

95.5 without a doubt was relaying 790 though, as they carried their programming like Rick said, for 20 minutes following the test.

 

[Rick]

If anyone is interested on further discussion about how the national EAS test went with comments from broadcast engineers (including WOR), you must see "This Week in Radio Tech" on Leo Laporte's TWiT network. See Episode 106: Duck Farts. They also play an aircheck of how the test went on WOR. If you want to jump right to the part that they begin discussing it, jump to 3:27. Here is the link: http://twit.tv/show/this-week-in-radio-tech/106

 

[Speaker of Truth]

"Let me ask you this..If I were an independent radio station no news network at all and I wanted to get something on this news.I could broadcast any news I wanted to to get the message out and not asking"

There are FCC rules in place that would allow stations to pick up network feeds in case of a national emergency..there are also rules that would require some stations, primarily AM, to sign off and clear the band in the same situation...