Today's first-ever national test of the television and radio emergency warning system went off at 1 p.m., but with a few glitches.
Initial reports indicated the test ran appropriately on most, but not all, radio and TV stations.
Media reports indicate DirecTV subscribers heard the Lady Gaga song "Paparazzi" while the test was in progress. It's unclear whether that was intentional.
Terrence Dupuis, an engineer at St. Louis NPR affiliate KWMU, said his station had its own problem."Our programming was interrupted, but the audio message was very distorted," Dupuis said.The message was fed from National Public Radio in Washington.The warning varied by station.An audio message was supposed to say, "This is a test." Some television stations included the text "Emergency Action Notification has been issued," but not all were able to have the audio message that the notification was only a test.Some stations showed a notification screen, while others showed a scroll over their normal programing with information about a warning.Some 911 answering centers, including the one run by the St. Louis County police, had extra call-takers on duty to handle a possible surge in inquiries. Police here said they saw no increase in calls resulting from the test.The Emergency Alert System is intended to warn of national crises, such as earthquakes or terrorist attacks.
