Disastrous Test

If the United States were about to be hit by nuclear weapons, the hope would be that the government would issue a warning through the Emergency Broadcast System. The hope is that the warning would be followed by calm controlled adherence to the warning’s instructions. However, that system hasn’t always existed, and it hasn’t always been reliable. On February 20, 1971, a botched test caused over 40 minutes of widespread panic when people believed the country was under nuclear attack.

Since 1951, the United States has used TV and radio stations, and now, even cell phones, to broadcast emergency information. All of this began during the Cold War. It had been driven by fears of nuclear war. Tensions between the USSR and the United States grew, so defense officials developed a way not only to communicate with the public but also to confuse potential Soviet aircraft. Known as CONELRAD, it involved quickly shutting down most radio stations, then activating select ones to share civil defense updates, making it harder for enemy planes to use radio signals for navigation.

In 1963, the system was upgraded to the Emergency Broadcast System. It was designed for national emergencies and for sharing local updates about weather and natural disasters. In a nationwide crisis, an alert would go out from the National Warning Center inside NORAD, the aerospace defense hub buried deep in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs. Once triggered, the EBS was meant to let the president address the nation within 10 minutes…at least, that was the idea.

The system was tested every Saturday, but on one Saturday in 1971, a real message and not just a test came through the special teletype network in every radio and TV station. “Message authenticator: hatefulness, hatefulness,” it read. “This is an Emergency Action Notification (EAN) directed by the President. Normal broadcasting will stop immediately.”

The word “Hatefulness” matched the special daily code sent to broadcasters to confirm an emergency alert, and that at this time it was no drill. Broadcasters jumped into action, cutting into regular programming to read a federally mandated script explaining the interruption was at the government’s request. While the voices calmly directed listeners to tune into a station carrying news and updates, behind the scenes the mood was anything but calm. Variety noted that parts of the broadcast industry, and the nation, were in disarray. Some stations aired the announcement and went off the air as required, leaving listeners confused. Others didn’t catch the warning until it had already been cancelled, and some shut down without even broadcasting it.

Outside radio stations, chaos reigned. As expected, panicked listeners jammed the phone lines, desperate for answers, while others huddled around TV sets, bracing for grim news. With the Vietnam War raging, many feared the U.S. fight against Communism had tipped into nuclear conflict. Confused officials scrambled for information as calls flooded the Pentagon. When the warning center discovered the error, employees frantically hunted for the code word to stop the broadcasts, but it was nowhere to be found. Six attempts to cancel the message were made, and every single one failed. At last, over 40 minutes after the initial transmission, the Office of Civil Defense sent out a cancellation message with the correct code word, “impish” to broadcasters. The first big test, and failure, of the Emergency Broadcast System had ended. Programming returned to normal, and Americans collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

In the end, the Office of Civil Defense said an operator at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, W.S. Eberhardt, had accidentally loaded the wrong tape. Broadcasters were livid. “The whole darn system won’t work,” one station worker told UPI. “They could’ve been dropping H-bombs on us.” The public was upset as well, realizing the nation’s primary communications system wasn’t as reliable as believed. “Could similar ‘human error’ here or in the Soviet Union…trigger American or Soviet weapons?” asked The New York Times, criticizing “incompetence and unpreparedness at every link of this vital chain.”

The disastrous test caused officials to revise how tests were conducted. They updated the wording, although radio stations could, and sometimes did, deliver it however they pleased, even as a song!! In 1997, the system received another upgrade, becoming the Emergency Alert System. On October 2, 2018, the government sent its first nationwide “Presidential Alert” to all cell phones.

Though the system has changed over time, one thing from the 1971 false alarm still lingers: the loud, screeching tones you hear during Emergency Alert System tests. Much like the sound of a modem sending data, these tones carry information to broadcasters, letting them know what’s going on and whether it’s a drill or a real emergency. Without the chaos of 1971, those safeguards might never have been put in place.