Did anyone hear the EAS (Emergency Alert System) take over the radio airwaves Tuesday morning? I have not listened to local morning radio in a while (hooked on Sirius Satellite Radio), but of all days, TODAY was the day I decided to hear what’s been going on with Guy Phillips, Craig Cornett, and other morning radio shows.
In the middle of Guy, Jen and Court’s call-in segment about great summer jobs, BAM! you hear those high-pitched tones and blips, followed by LOTS and LOTS of static. After about a minute (which is an ETERNITY in radio), I started flipping the dial and noticing everyone else with the same problem. But, the whole time I didn’t think we were in an actual emergency (must be immune to those tests), so I just started laughing my butt off!
You must know my history…I used to be Guy’s morning show producer about 10 years ago (when it was Guy and Michelle Dibble) and anytime something would go really wrong–especially something you couldn’t control–it was crazy behind the scenes. I could only imagine the crew was pulling out booklets, making phone calls to engineering, trying to get as much control as they could. And what bad timing! It was a really great call-in segment that became an instant buzzkill.
Then I started hearing commercials from 550 AM KTRS?! On Y98′s air?? After a couple minutes of that, Y98′s commercials started playing, and Guy came back on the air and tried to explain to his audience what was going on. He said they were all in extreme panic, because it was flagged as an actual alert, not a test, and this has never happened to him in his career! They explained how KTRS was the flagship station for news when there is an EAS activation, but someone must have hit the wrong button and it blew out the whole radio frequency.
Did anyone else hear this? Was anyone in a panic?
