Fewer Problems Reported During National EAS Test

There’s been no official word yet from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Federal Communications Commission about how successful Wednesday’s national Emergency Alert System test was. But, according to InsideRadio, early indications are there were fewer problems than five years ago when the last national EAS test was held. That’s not to say there weren’t a few glitches.

For nearly all of the stations that RadioWorld reached out to, engineers described the audio as “excellent” and “fantastic,” with others describing the video crawl as “clear.”

In Philadelphia several stations had no problem getting the alert tones on the air but rather than air the “this is a test” message, the stations instead relayed an interview about a Sioux City, IA radio station that opted to go all-‘80s music—including a clip of A-ha’s hit “Take On Me”—that was airing on Philly’s “Local Primary” or LP-1 alert station WHYY (90.9). One of the several that aired it was AC “101.1 More FM” WBEB, where program director Chuck Knight says it lasted about a minute until his team hit the release button tones themselves.

What went wrong isn’t entirely clear—the problem may have been at WHYY or further upstream. WHYY didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.  Stations that aired the alert correctly could have grabbed the alert from the LP-2 station—“Classic Rock 102.9” WMGK—or even the CAP server that relies on a web-based message distribution system. But stations also point out the Pennsylvania statewide distribution network appeared to have been slowed.

Meanwhile, posts on social media websites also hinted at some minor problems in a few markets including St. Louis and San Antonio. Figuring out what went wrong will be the job of FEMA and the FCC in the coming months.

FEMA officials said at last week’s Radio Show they expected 4%-5% of stations would run into problems during Wednesday’s national test. But rather than point fingers, officials said the goal was to see where the weak links in the EAS chain remain.