Emergency response
Dec 2, 2011 5:20 PM, By Ned Soseman
The CONELRAD logo was a ubiquitous reminder of potential national emergencies in the 1950s.
A couple of recent news items caught my attention and imagination. Maybe you noticed, too. Both have to do with emergency situations.
First was the fire alarm about 10 seconds into the NBC Nightly News on Nov. 29. If you didn’t see it, Brian Williams handled it like any accomplished news anchor who isn’t directly threatened by smoke or flames would do, and the show went on. Eyeballs rolled and clever chatter covered the alarm and what must have been a full-scale behind-the-scenes meltdown. It was an embarrassing moment for NBC, but the show went on as if nothing happened.
Fire alarms always spark debates in television stations. Nearly all facilities have plenty of fire safety equipment, including sprinklers, extinguishers and fire alarms, and many schedule a regular fire drill every so often. Most local fire departments and insurance carriers insist on it.
Usually, fire drills are scheduled around live newscasts and productions. But in the spirit of Murphy’s Law and all that makes broadcasting so much fun, not this time at NBC. As the alarm was blaring, Williams maintained his on-air cool. He explained, “There is no danger to us.” And he said the alarm was a scheduled “announcement.”
My question to you is: How do people in your facility react to fire alarms? Does everyone take them seriously? Does your station have a policy in place defining who leaves the building, who stays and who makes that decision? These questions are beyond the scope of this newsletter, but the NBC example should be considered or at least mentioned at the next department head meeting at your station. Lives and lawsuits could hang in the balance.
What’s more exciting than a RWT?
Broadcasters have been rehearsing for a national emergency for nearly 60 years. Emergency broadcasting was officially introduced on Dec. 10, 1951, when the Control of Electromagnetic Radiation system, known as CONELRAD, was established by President Harry Truman. The original idea was to prevent enemy bombers from homing in on cities by using radio or TV transmitters as beacons. It was also supposed to provide essential civil defense information to the general public. The technical concept of CONELRAD was simple. A CONELRAD alert or test consisted of shutting the transmitter off for five seconds, returning to the air for five seconds, again shutting off for five seconds, and then transmitting a tone for 15 seconds. Of course, not all transmitters could handle that kind of plate-on, plate-off, plate-on stress. This was but one of the first recognized problems of CONELRAD.
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