Nationwide Alert System Test Set For Today

By Alex Weprin 

Today at 2 PM ET, every U.S. television network will be participating in the first nationwide test of the U.S. Emergency Alert System.

In other words, if you are watching Fox News, CNN, Discovery Channel or Nickelodeon at that time, you will be seeing–and hearing–something very different than the soothing sounds of talking heads or cartoon characters that you are probably used to. It will be very similar to the local emergency alert systems that everyone knows and loves from when they can’t fall asleep late in the evening. Except, of course, that it will be nationwide, and it will be the middle of the day.

The FCC explains the “what” and “why” here.

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Do you hear that? That is the sound of cable news executives crossing their fingers that no actual news happens today at 2 PM…

Update: Here in NYC we didn’t see anything happen at 2 PM on either CNN, MSNBC or Fox News. Did it work where you are? Let us know in the comments.

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