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Failures Mark First National Test of Emergency Alert System

Posted by timothy on from the did-not-interrupt-youtube-either dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The first full-scale test of the National Emergency Alert System failed on Tuesday at 2 PM. Some radio and television networks did not air any alert, while the performance of others was inconsistent. 'Some DirectTV customers reported hearing Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" play during the test. Some Comcast subscribers saw their cable boxes turn to QVC before the alert, while Time Warner Cable customers in New York did not see any alert at all.'" If you were tuned to any American broadcaster at the time, did the alert system reach you?

2 of 451 comments (clear)

  1. Lost Channels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The local cable broadcaster here lost approx 10 channels after the test, including CNN, FOX, and DISCOVERY. They all switched to the NAT GEO channel without audio for upwards of an hour after the test ran.

    In addition, the test video was jumpy, kept blacking out, audio kept dropping out, etc.

    All in all, if it had been a real emergency, losing the 2 major news channels would have been real motivation to start loading ammo and supplies and gassing up the bug out mobile. ;)

  2. Re:Government failure? by timeOday · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Government negativism has reached a questionable new high. Most often the criticisms are not even quantified (as in this story), not compared to private industry (where possible) (e.g. Social Security fraud), and not compared to historical or global norms. The economy sucks and the public is united only in being unhappy about it, in which they feel some solidarity, yet can't form a consensus on what to do about it.