Back in the mid to late seventies I recall several Hartford stations running non-standard EBS tests, you know the basic script:
"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test . . ."
WHCN, which was a progressive rock station at the time, had one with air raid sirens in the background which grew louder and louder while the announcers voice became more and more distorted, noisy and distant. WWUH ran one what must have been produced by a professional jingle company because the entire test script, which run a good part of 60 seconds, was sung in perfect three part harmony ending in the refrain "Did you pass?" And a friend told me that WPLR had one with explosions and machine gun fire in the background! It wasn't long before the FCC caught wind of stations doing this kind of thing and they issued a statement that said that they took a dim view of the practice which took away from the seriousness of the test.
Does anyone else remember any of these non-standard tests?
And while we're on the subject of EBS, it turns out that a handful of CT stations had bomb shelters, including WTIC, WQQW, WNLC, WELI and WICH. In fact you can see the WELI shelter here (scroll down):
http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WELI__AM_.html
and the WTIC (radio) shelter can be seen here:
http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WTIC__AM__Technical.html
"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test . . ."
WHCN, which was a progressive rock station at the time, had one with air raid sirens in the background which grew louder and louder while the announcers voice became more and more distorted, noisy and distant. WWUH ran one what must have been produced by a professional jingle company because the entire test script, which run a good part of 60 seconds, was sung in perfect three part harmony ending in the refrain "Did you pass?" And a friend told me that WPLR had one with explosions and machine gun fire in the background! It wasn't long before the FCC caught wind of stations doing this kind of thing and they issued a statement that said that they took a dim view of the practice which took away from the seriousness of the test.
Does anyone else remember any of these non-standard tests?
And while we're on the subject of EBS, it turns out that a handful of CT stations had bomb shelters, including WTIC, WQQW, WNLC, WELI and WICH. In fact you can see the WELI shelter here (scroll down):
http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WELI__AM_.html
and the WTIC (radio) shelter can be seen here:
http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WTIC__AM__Technical.html