Strange Emergency Message On TV Last Night

Originally posted by MOOR45
I wouldn't be surprised if they were testing for something that may happen. They always do those types of test late at night when few people are up. Saw the same thing in NYC a couple of years back with no explanation. Keep an eye out and call your programmer if you can. I think that was a great suggestion.

But they would never "fake" a test like that. The boy that cried wolf thing. If you have a Replay or Tivo, maybe you can DVR several hours and see if you can catch it again.

One plausable explanation for this: The cable feeds come in from satelite. They are then sent to your home through the cable. The Emergency Broadcast System is feed in by the cable company. Its also logical that alot of the scrolling warning banners are preprogramed. Maybe some tech hit the wrong switch.

I didn't mean that they faked a test, could just be technical issues in a new facility....

Emergency TV Broadcasting and governance via the tube??


1984 has arrived!

Originally posted by para
I live in eastern WA and got the same message last night (also while watching the History Channel!) It was a full screen EBS/whatever from 12:38 AM to 1:38 AM on all the cable channels. It only lasted for about two minutes on all channels, but said to turn to channel five. Channel five is the Comcast advertisement and �city channel� that nobody watches. Anyway, it was for a kidnapping, four children were kidnapped supposedly by their father, who was driving a blue Honda Civic. It was a �lowrider-type vehicle� according to the officer reading the prompt, and the suspect was considered armed and dangerous.

I bet what you saw was for the same thing being rebroadcast at a later time, because the kidnapping occurred somewhere in central Washington, and I live about twenty minutes from Idaho and still got it. I don't know if it stayed on until 1:38 though, I didn't bother to check.


[edit on 7/11/04 by para]

Link to a story about the Amber Alert here
Also mentions the process.

I think defcon5 may have hit the nail on the head here folks.

Maybe all the cable companies are suddenly connecting to the DHS Terror centre.

Once years ago I was up late watching TV when an Emergency Broadcast came on. It said "A large unidentified flying object has been spotted over NYC, please stay tuned for further details" It only came on once... there were no further details... nothing...

Yeah... the more I think about it these messages seem like secret studies to test people's potential for mass paranoia (or to generate paranoia, in a stealth manner???)

BTW Skady... you're one hell of a sexy elf!!!

Originally posted by FredT

Originally posted by MOOR45
I wouldn't be surprised if they were testing for something that may happen. They always do those types of test late at night when few people are up. Saw the same thing in NYC a couple of years back with no explanation. Keep an eye out and call your programmer if you can. I think that was a great suggestion.

But they would never "fake" a test like that. The boy that cried wolf thing. If you have a Replay or Tivo, maybe you can DVR several hours and see if you can catch it again.

One plausable explanation for this: The cable feeds come in from satelite. They are then sent to your home through the cable. The Emergency Broadcast System is feed in by the cable company. Its also logical that alot of the scrolling warning banners are preprogramed. Maybe some tech hit the wrong switch.

I'm not suggesting it is fake, just that I feel they use the system to gauge a response as the other posters here have mentioned. Hitting the wrong switch, according to Nerdling, is illegal and is supposed to be authorized by a station chief. With all the hoopla happening about pre-election jitters, I would not be surprised if they were testing the public's reaction.

How are they judging/gauging it though? Are they looking for riots to start and people to run into the streets screaming that the world is going to end when an incomplete message scrolls across the screen?

What would you do if you saw this happen, call the police, call a relative, what?

Most likely ignore it. Just like I would.

So where are the actions that they could monitor to gauge it?

Thanks para for that clarification.

I think the public would be best served by having categorized warnings though. A lot of people will look at a warning like that and freak out.

Perhaps a different looking warning for weather emergencies than for terrorist alerts, or amber alerts etc.

I understand, people will say that someone should just inquire further, but honestly people tend to panic, especially nowadays, why not make life easier.

For example, think back to the News coverage of the events of 9-11. If you go back and look at the coverage by ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN and every other news service for that day you will see that at the exact same day, the exact same hour every single network started using the little scrolling screen at the bottom of the TV. It is an amazing coincidence that they all started it that very day with 9-11. You can go back and look for yourself. It was never done until that day and has been done ever since.

But then again.......I am a paranoid kind of guy and believe JFK was not killed by the lone gunman Oswald.

They can measure things as simple as telephone calls to local enforcement, calls to the station itself, etc. It is a known fact that most Americans have a short attention span. They could be using that info to see if any changes in the public's awareness has changed. Don't forget Nielsen's rating system can be used to measure the estimated population watching a station at any given time. Perhaps they were just field testing to see what times people are focused on the boob tube after hours. Just fishing but the possibility is definitely there. Look what kind of response this post has amassed. Eiher way it shouldn't be ignored or thrown out as an isolated accident.

[edit on 7/12/2004 by MOOR45]

A question though, was it at the exact same time across different states, and cable providers?

Originally posted by defcon5


A question though, was it at the exact same time across different states, and cable providers?

According to the posters here, at least two different states were mentioned, but it is also noted that these messages gave alertst to kidnapping in that region of the country as well.

Touch� MOOR45, I suppose they could use the nelson connected homes to see how many people switch to the stated channel when the message came on, but I don�t think that the message mentioned inculed a channel to switch to

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
it scrolled: "A Civil Authority Has Issued. Tune Into Local Channel for Details."

It just said a local station, nothing specific.

Originally posted by MOOR45
They can measure things as simple as telephone calls to local enforcement, calls to the station itself, etc. It is a known fact that most Americans have a short attention span.

Exactly my point. 99% of the people out there would never for a second believe half the stuff people here do, so to them there is no conspiracy, and they would take no action, they would just ignore it.

Better watch yourself, this is how Dawn of the Dead began. Any leaking nuclear sites or space probes around.

When there is no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth.

Originally posted by defcon5
A question though, was it at the exact same time across different states, and cable providers?

We both have the same cable provider (Comcast). Her mother reported seeing it on a different provider, but when exactly is unknown.

Originally posted by MOOR45
According to the posters here, at least two different states were mentioned, but it is also noted that these messages gave alertst to kidnapping in that region of the country as well.

Just to clarify, Skadi and I both live in Washington. I live very close to Idaho, but not in it. While it entirely possible that it was broadcast in Idaho, I can�t verify it.

[edit on 7/12/04 by para]

Just FYI, I live in New York City and whenever we get emergency broadcast notices for Thunderstorm warnings and what not they always carry over on all cable systems and usually go in NYC, Jersey and CT as well.

I guess it depends on the severity of what's going on and how many people need to know about it.

I assume in a case where the event could spread to other states (for example a kidnapper who might go to another state on the run) it might be appropriate for the warning to spread further.

*******UPDATE.********

I went over to my mothers house saturday night because she called me up and was pretty nervous and freaked. So I went over, and she told me in detaIL what had happened.

The warning, first off, or incomplete warning, went off several times. I only know of three times, but she told me it went off a few times. It had freaked her out at first because she did not see "this is a test" or anything. She kept flipping to local channels, but there was nothing. It came on several times.

Then around 9 a.m., the power went off for like 10 seconds. Her friend who owns the house was on the phone with family, when it emitted a loud, ear piericing sound, so loud she threw it acvross the room. The power came on ten seconds later. No high winds or anything.

Then when the tv turned back on, they flipped through local channels, nothing. but then the emergency messAge came back on. This time, it said "A civil authority has issued a weekly test". It did that a few more times with the test part in it.

It went on until I got there, around 10 P.M., it sent off anothertest while i was there visiting with her. I dunno iof anymore happened that night.

I thought id give you an update, though. I had not gotten a chance to get the whole story when i was on the phone with her, and thus, could not post the whole thing. But I figured since she told me the rest, Id share it on here.

So, to sum it up, the next day, they were scrolling the emergency message with the test part in it. But the night before, they had scrolled it several times and nothing. I dunno. Pretty strange.

Could be a number of things. For now, all is quiet. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

I was watching Drew Carey tonight and suddenly, the screen went red on all channels. Then, the screen went green and the weekly test message came on, but it usally lasts for 10-30 seconds - it flicked for about one second, and then the show came immediately back on.

Its not only strange because of how briefly it lasted, but because it came on at that time! Every time I have seen a weekly test, it has been during the daytime, usually around or after noon.

Someone is either playing with some switches, or the system is being prepped up for something.