48 Years Ago Today; EBS False Alarm of 1971

[Dennis Donovan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_System#False_alarm_of_1971

False alarm of 1971
A properly authenticated Emergency Action Notification was incorrectly sent to United States broadcast stations at 9:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1971. At the usual time a weekly EAN test is performed, NORAD teletype operator W. S. Eberhardt had three tapes in front of him: a test tape, and two tapes indicating a real emergency, instructing the use of EAN Message #1, and #2, respectively. He inadvertently used the wrong tape, with codeword "HATEFULNESS". This message ordered stations to cease regular programming immediately, and begin an Emergency Action Notification using Message #1. Message 1 states that regular programming has been interrupted at the request of the United States government, but is not specific about the cause. A cancellation message was sent at 9:59 a.m. EST, but it used an incorrect codeword. A cancellation message with the correct codeword, "IMPISH", was not sent until 10:13 a.m. EST After 40 minutes and six incorrect or improperly formatted cancellation messages, the accidental activation was officially terminated.

This false alarm demonstrated major flaws in the practical implementation of an EAN. Over 2,500 radio and television stations received the notification. Some stations ignored it (convinced it was false because it came at the time of a scheduled test) and continued with regular programming. Others cancelled the EAN prematurely, with or without an any coded indication that the alert was erroneous. Still other stations did not have EAN procedure documents readily accessible to them, so they had no indication of what to do at all. It is estimated that only 20% of the stations that received the activation followed the procedures completely. Several stations went off the air, as they were instructed to do. Recordings from stations that did not (and were not supposed to according to EAN procedures) include one from WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for which a recording of the EAN activation exists. Another recording of the EAN activation on WCCO in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota can be heard on RadioTapes.com.

This false alarm was sufficiently disruptive to move the FCC to temporarily suspend use and testing of Emergency Action Notifications (EANs) by codeword effective February 25, 1971. In the meantime, a national EBS activation (actual or test) would be routed through news service broadcast desks, then authenticated with the White House communications center, introducing a delay of approximately one minute.[9] Numerous investigations were launched, and several changes were made to the EBS. Among them, EAN Message #2, which contains specific language indicating an imminent attack, was eliminated. Another change was moving the tapes for genuine alerts away from the broadcasting machines to prevent them being mistaken for the weekly test tapes. After numerous safeguards were put in place, the FCC voted to resume automatic national activation of the EBS using EANs in mid-December, 1972, almost 20 months after they were suspended.

I was 5 at the time and in Kindergarten. I don't recall this happening, though.

[John1956PA]

1. I remember it well. I posted about it on my Fb page a few years ago. n/t