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Post by topbilled on Sept 15, 2023 4:49:23 GMT
Someone posted a 1981 episode of The Edge of Night on YouTube earlier today which I watched. The episode is complete with commercials, and before the show starts, whatever channel it had been recorded from in the Philadelphia area, has an Emergency Broadcast System message.
You remember the drill: "This is a test. For the next thirty seconds, this station will conduct a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test."
I had forgotten all about the EBS segments. I guess they were discontinued in the late 1990s, when a new system was developed and implemented.
A memory I have about these in the 1980s, when I was barely 10 years old, is that they were preparing us for a nuclear war...but they never came out and said it...so these drills always seemed eerie and mysterious.
Anyone else have specific thoughts about it? What do we think would have happened in the event of a national emergency in the 1980s? Would anyone have listened to the broadcast instructions? Or would they have been too panicky and hysterical to listen?
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Post by kims on Sept 15, 2023 18:28:52 GMT
I'm not sure of the year, I think early 70's when the EBS played the wrong message-that this was NOT a test. The average citizen didn't respond-I guess we heard the message so often it was just white noise. I don't know if any agencies responded, but the evening news reported the wrong message played.
Here in Florida we have the monthly test of the state's system-used for info on tornados and hurricanes, and I assume other disasters.
Anyone else old enough to remember CIVIL DEFENSE?-citizens trained to help in disasters? The average citizen lost interest or too busy for this volunteer training and activation during disasters. Sad because now we depend on the police, National Guard and other government entities (and therefore increase in taxes). There were local locations where the CD's supplies of safe water and canned food as well as first aid supplies. Now we wait helplessly for the gov't agencies to activate. With CD you and your neighbors were out there helping each other. I remember early sixties, CD my father included were first to respond when a part of town flooded. Dad brought me to help hand out clean water and dry blankets while the men sandbagged.
Late '50' I had a school issued dog tag and drills were that we hide under our desks for nuclear attacks-which is funny now, but a fear in the day.
In the '80s people were becoming more self absorbed and turning to the mindset that rather than personal responsibility, that the gov't should take care of us. I managed a theater in central Indiana where the John Birch Society was worshiped. I had high school age employees who needed one weekend off a month for survival training. That was a new level of taking responsibility for yourself. And a little frightening when Magic Johnson wearing full length mink coat showed up at the theater, I feared someone would shoot him, but it was a weeknight with few patrons and they were enamored with his celebrity. (Think I was over-reacting? One of my Black cleaners was kidnapped from the theatre, taken to a field and branded with KKK on his forehead. Also, because the theater didn't close until after midnight, a police office used to follow me home for my safety).
My answer is in the 80's, some would panic, and most would wait for someone else to help. But look at the response to 9/11. People wanted to do something, and all that was available was donate blood. I regret the demise of CIVIL DEFENSE because the trained people knew what to do and how to organize volunteers.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Sept 17, 2023 16:27:33 GMT
We still have regular bi-weekly tests of emergency broadcast alerts on our cable system, which I suspect are mostly intended for getting out information during catastrophic weather events, as kim has said. What I don't understand is that events like that are often accompanied by power outages, so the alerts could go unheard as well as unheeded. Ours are preceded by a loud blaring alarm, which really freaks out the dogs, so I've gotten good at anticipating and hitting the mute button. There's a moment when the screen goes blank and before the alarm goes off which allows me to avert the disaster of dogs going berserk, which is the disaster I really care about at that moment. I don't mean to minimize it, though. I'm sure it could be useful getting out information in situations like the recent escaped convict in Pennsylvania when a shelter-in-place order is in effect or in the case of mass shootings where public interest is so high. But I think kim is right that a "let others take care of it" mentality might prevail. A local magazine-type show just did a segment on CPR and how few people are actually trained, another example of the same phenomenon.
Probably phone alerts, which aren't immediately susceptible to power outages, are the way to go today, but with the sophistication of hackers growing every day, who knows what could potentially go wrong there.
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Post by BunnyWhit on Oct 5, 2023 5:10:33 GMT
I read the law requires the EBS to be tested at least every three years. It's interesting that this thread is only a couple weeks old, and the test happened across all platforms today. Coincidentally, my local emergency system tests the first Wednesday of each month at the same time. Kinda freaked me out.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 5, 2023 16:05:10 GMT
I read the law requires the EBS to be tested at least every three years. It's interesting that this thread is only a couple weeks old, and the test happened across all platforms today. Coincidentally, my local emergency system tests the first Wednesday of each month at the same time. Kinda freaked me out.
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