It Was Only a Test, but What a Test

At 2 p.m. Eastern time on Nov 9, all television channels and radio stations in the United States were supposed to be interrupted by a brief test of the nation’s Emergency Alert System. But, like most tests, some passed and some failed.

Beginning at 2:01 p.m., viewers and listeners in many states said they saw and heard the alerts at the scheduled time, but others said they did not. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancies, but that was one of the purposes of the test — to find out how well the system would work in an actual emergency. Certainly, viewers and listeners have grown accustomed to hearing the tones and reminders — “this is just a test” — when the systems are activated locally each week by broadcasters. But government officials said the national system had never been tested before as a whole, nor had it been used in an emergency, allowing the President to address the public. Many of the reported failures affected cable and satellite television subscribers, and some were quite puzzling. Some DirecTV subscribers said their TV sets played the Lady Gaga song “Paparazzi” when the test was under way. Some Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York said the test never appeared on screen. Some Comcast subscribers in northern Virginia said their TV sets were switched over to QVC before the alert was shown. Many other viewers and listeners reported that the alert arrived right on time at 2 p.m. Eastern. It halted digital video recorder playback in some households and surprised radio listeners in their cars.

In a statement around 2:40 p.m., the agencies said they were collecting data about the results of the test. “This initial test was the first time we have tested the reach and scope of this technology and additional improvements that should be made to the system as we move forward,” the statement read. “Only through comprehensively testing, analyzing and improving these technologies can we ensure an effective and reliable national emergency alert and warning system.” The agencies said they looked forward to working with media companies to “improve this current technology and build a robust, resilient and fully accessible next generation alerting system that can provide timely and accurate alerts to the American people.”