The Emergency Alert System is being tested in Alaska this week. Specifically, the Jan. 6 exercise tests the presidential alert and warning capabilities over radio and television broadcast stations and cable television systems.
Why test in Alaska? Because its isolation makes it easier to confine the broadcasts to one area, according to a plugged-in engineering source.
Broadcasters have been airing PSAs about the test; they were distributed in late December.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski stated, “The Alaska exercise will help determine how to further improve the nation’s alerting system and better prepare us in our ongoing efforts to implement Next-Generation EAS.”
The FCC is involved in the test, along with the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the state of Alaska and the Alaska Broadcasters’ Association.
