LaCrosse Radio: WIZM Transmits Zombie EAS

A goof-up by some La Crosse, WI radio personalities caused WKBT-TV viewers to hear a warning of a zombie attack Wednesday morning.

According to the LaCrosse Tribune, the message went out shortly after 7:30 a.m. Tuesday when, Brittany & Marco,  hosts of the WIZM Z-93 morning show were talking about how hackers broke into the Emergency Alert System of a Montana TV station Monday and sent out the bogus warning.

The problem: Z-93, owned by Mid-West Family Broadcasting, is the primary station in the local emergency network, and when they played a tape of the hoax, the alert tones triggered WKBT’s receiver, which automatically rebroadcast the signal.

Viewers heard both the phony message — which warned of “dead bodies rising from their graves” in several Montana counties and attacking the living — as well as the local DJs’ laughter.

Brittany & Marco

The hackers’ message warned people not to “approach or apprehend these bodies as they are extremely dangerous.”

“Our engineers caught it immediately and called them,” said Z-93 station manager Brian Michaels, who apologized to WKBT.

Michaels said as far as he knows WKBT was the only station to pick up the alert, which would normally be carried by all radio and television stations broadcasting to La Crosse and surrounding counties.

La Crosse County dispatchers said the alert did not generate any calls from the public.

Of course if it had been an actual zombie apocalypse, viewers would have been instructed where to tune in for official information.

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