Government picks up the pieces after flawed EAS test
Nov 14, 2011 12:22 PM, By Michael Grotticelli
The NAB called the EAS failures “isolated glitches,” but insisted the test ran successfully.
Last week’s test of the Emergency Alert System is leaving a lot of problems to sort out in the aftermath. The scheduled 2 p.m. test on Nov. 9 (in some instances, it happened a few minuets later), worked at some places and not at others. With more than 30,000 participants — including broadcast stations, cable operators and other MVPDs — everyone agrees it will take time to sort it all out.
All television and radio programming in the U.S. was supposed to be interrupted by the test. However, like most experiments, it didn’t work in many places. Some viewers never saw an alert, while others said the audio was distorted. ABC reported that WAPI in Birmingham, AL, reported that the entire area had trouble with the alert.
“Did not air on any station in our cluster, or any TV station in the market,” the station wrote. “Callers with DirecTV report seeing Lady Gaga.”
There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancies, but they were everywhere. ABC News reported that on the television feeds at its headquarters in New York City, CNN ran a preview graphic saying, “Soon: Emergency Test Alert,” but the actual test never ran. Both ESPN and Fox News teased that the test was coming up, but it never happened. On MTV, it was afternoon programming as usual.
In New York City, there were reports from some Time Warner Cable subscribers that the test never appeared on screen. Some Comcast subscribers in northern Virginia reported their TV sets were switched over to QVC before the alert was shown.
TheNew York Times reported that a viewer in Minneapolis said he saw the message about three minutes late. Another viewer in Chattanooga, TN, said she saw it about 10 minutes late. In Greensboro, NC, a local reporter saw the alert on all the cable news channels but on none of the local broadcast networks. In Los Angeles, some cable customers said the alert lasted almost half an hour.
Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told ABC News the only way to improve the system is to test it.
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