Why we don't play the Emergency Alert System tone on TV

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/27/fox_eas_tones_fine/

by Stratoscope • 3 years ago

17 9 3 years ago

bitsavers2• 3 years ago

"The use of the sound is prohibited to prevent people becoming desensitized to something you should only hear in the most dire circumstances."

and then the "protect the children" people created Amber Alerts, which have done exactly that

gumby• 3 years ago

I have amber alerts disabled because I can't imagine recognising someone driving around, with everything else going on in life.

I have only heard the emergency broadcast system for real in the '89 bay area quake (I've heard tests many times). But I understand it's used frequently (legitimately) in tornado-prone areas.

bitsavers2• 3 years ago

EAS radio announcements go out in the Bay Area for flooding (at least they are supposed to) I know we were careful to do it for Santa Clara county at KFJC

cbsks• 3 years ago

In southern California we get emergency alerts for fire and flood evacuation orders. They are legitimately useful, when an evacuation order happens you want to know asap.

Turing_Machine• 3 years ago

Right. If the Amber Alerts had pictures with them, they might actually be useful.

There's no way I'm going to confront someone on the streets (or even call the cops) based solely on a vague text description like "8-year-old girl with brown hair wearing a tee shirt and jeans".

LinuxBender• 3 years ago

Hawaiians once received one of these alerts for "missile inbound" in error. [1] That may have had an impact on sensitivity to these alerts.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_aler...

exabrial• 3 years ago

Marketers will hijack anything, even safety

nohankyou• 3 years ago

In car radio, it's adding honking horns to the ads. Ringing phones... things that should just be left alone.

yellowapple• 3 years ago

There's a special circle of Hell for marketers who use police sirens in radio ads.

Why we don't play the Emergency Alert System tone on TV

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