False Emergency Alert Hits Chicago Airwaves

Tribune staff report
Published June 26, 2007

If you were listening to the radio or watching television this morning, you might have been confused by what appeared to be an emergency alert.

Numerous local stations were interrupted around 7:45 a.m. by what seemed to be an announcement from the Emergency Alert System. There was no indication it was a test message, and on-air hosts such as WGN-AM 720's Spike O'Dell were as surprised as listeners were.

"This is Spike at WGN," O'Dell said on the air after the station had gone silent for more than 2 minutes. "We are trying to figure out what's going on."

State officials said they believe the problem originated at the federal level.

On Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency installed a new satellite warning system for Illinois as part of a program set for all 50 states, Illinois Emergency Management Agency director Andrew Velasquez III said in a news release.

He said FEMA conducted a test of the new system this morning, but rather than sending an internal test message the signal was mistakenly sent out to broadcast stations.

"We don't know why the federal government used a 'hot' or active code rather than a test code when they sent out this test message," Velasquez said.

He said four messages were reportedly sent out as part of the test.

There was no emergency, and the state agency was not told that the test would be conducted, the news release said.

Calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency were not immediately returned.

The Federal Communications Commission received reports of problems in Illinois and the St. Louis area, spokesman Rob Kenny said.

FCC officials were investigating the series of glitches that broadcast stations said included periodic interruptions of programming by the Emergency Alert System's tone, sometimes lasting 3 or 4 minutes at a time.

Others said their signals were scrambled and that other stations were being broadcast on their frequencies.

The Emergency Alert System replaced the former Emergency Broadcast System. It can be activated by the federal government, by states or by the National Weather Service.