National Emergency Message

National Emergency Messages are treated the same as any other message transmitted over the Emergency Alert System, except that stations are required to relay them. When a message is received, the receiver is to open an audio channel to the originating source until the End of Message (EOM) tones are received. After the EOM is received, stations will return to normal programming in order to broadcast immediate news coverage of the event. Formerly, stations would not resume broadcast until an Emergency Action Termination (SAME code: EAT) was issued. ==The order of broadcast==

Before the header codes and attention signal are sent, the participating station reads an introductory script. "This is an Emergency Action Notification requested by the White House. All broadcast stations will follow activation procedures in the EAS Operating Handbook for a national level emergency. The President of the United States or his representative will shortly deliver a message over the Emergency Alert System." Emergency messages are then read in this order: • "We interrupt our programming; this is a national emergency. Important instructions will follow." • "This is an Emergency Action Notification. All broadcast stations and cable systems shall transmit this National Emergency Message. This station has interrupted its regular programming at the request of the White House to participate in the Emergency Alert System. During this emergency, most stations will remain on the air providing news and information to the public in assigned areas. This is (station call name). We will continue to serve the (EAS Local Area name) area. If you are not in this Local Area, you should tune to stations providing news and information for your Local Area. You are listening to the Emergency Alert System serving the (EAS Local Area name) area. Do not use your telephone. The telephone lines should be kept open for emergency use. The Emergency Alert System has been activated." • "We interrupt our programming at the request of the White House. This is the Emergency Alert System. All normal programming has been discontinued during this emergency. This is (station call name). This station will continue furnishing news, official information and instructions for the (EAS Local Area name) area. If you are not in (EAS Local Area name) area, you should tune to stations providing news and information for your area. It is important that you listen carefully to announcements from the station in your local area." • "The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States government. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill." • "Please stand by." • The president then delivers messages to the public regarding the national emergency. A standby script is used in the case there is no new information available. The end-of-message codes are transmitted after presidential messages are read. The operator logs the time and date the alert was received, and monitors their EAS source. National Information Center (SAME code: NIC) messages are now no longer authorized in the event of an emergency as of 2023 as part of FCC's clarity changes to the Emergency Alert System. ==Background==

, Chicago, in 1985, during the period of the Emergency Broadcast System. This EAN announcement was never seen on the airwaves of WGN-TV itself (although a version for tests was) but was posted to YouTube in March 2017. The term "Emergency Action Notification" was created when the Emergency Broadcast System went into place in 1963. Before the mid-1970s, this was the only non-test activation permitted (the same rule also applied to the earlier CONELRAD system). The EAN signifies a national emergency, as the wording shows. The Office of Civil Defense originally created the term for the national emergency notification enactment. FEMA soon took over after its creation, which further lead to the development of the modern Emergency Alert System. In its multi-decade history, however, the Emergency Alert System's EAN code has only been formally activated once: a test in 2011. Another time it was activated was during an error in 1971 that occurred in the EAS System, which was then still known as the Emergency Broadcast System. This was also during the height of the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, leading people to believe there was an imminent nuclear attack. The error was addressed in a later message. The alert ensured all Primary Entry Points (PEPs) were to receive the EAN and properly send the alert, and that all stations monitoring the PEP relayed properly. The test ended up being notoriously inaudible, with other EAS units audible in the background of the original test audio. Since this alert, all national tests have been under the NPT (Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System, formerly known as National Periodic Test) SAME code. In 2022, the FCC revised the Emergency Action Notification code to read "National Emergency Message." This change, along with many other revisions to the Emergency Alert System, was made to "improve the clarity and accessibility of alerts." ==Past operation==

Unlike other messages, the EAN was not the alert itself, but rather a notice that the activation is beginning. After the End of Message (EOM) tones were sent, normal programming did not resume. Instead, most stations were to broadcast emergency information in a specific priority order. Messages from the President are always broadcast first. Next comes local messages, statewide and regional messages, and finally national messages not originating from the President. When an EAN was initially received, and during any time a new message was not available, an FCC mandated standby script was used (and repeated). Other stations, which held special permission from the FCC, would sign off until the end of the EAN. Normal programming would not continue until the transmission of an Emergency Action Termination message (SAME code: EAT). ==False alarms==

A properly authenticated Emergency Action Notification was incorrectly sent to United States broadcast at 9:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1971. At the usual time, a weekly EAN test was performed. NORAD teletype operator W.S. Eberhardt had three tapes in front of him: a test tape, and 2 tapes indicating a real emergency, instructing the use of EAN Message #1, and #2, respectively. He accidentally used the wrong tape, with codeword "HATEFULNESS". This message ordered stations to cease regular programming immediately, and begin an Emergency Action Notification using Message #1. Message 1 states that regular programming has been interrupted at the request of the United States government, but is not specific about the cause. A cancellation message was sent at 9:59 a.m. EST, but the message's codeword, "HATEFULNESS" again, was incorrect. A cancellation message with the correct codeword, "IMPISH", was not sent until 10:13 a.m. EST. On June 26, 2007, an EAN was accidentally activated for the state of Illinois, when new satellite delivery equipment for the EAS was accidentally left connected to a live network during what was meant to be a closed-circuit test. On October 24, 2014, Bobby Bones' syndicated radio program broadcast audio from the 2011 national test of the EAS (the only one that was coded as an EAN) during a segment where he ranted over his local Fox affiliate's scheduling of an EAS test during a World Series game. The broadcast triggered the EAS on some broadcasters and cable systems. The program's distributor iHeartMedia was fined $1 million by the FCC for the incident. In 2016 or 2017, KUCO-LD in the Sacramento Valley area of California conducted an unauthorized test of the EAS. However, the message read in Spanish said that the activation was for an Emergency Action Notification relaying from station K20FZ. It was due to a wrong video cartridge being inserted instead of an EAS test cartridge. ==Notes==