All of the broadcasters in the United States have never been
linked to one emergency broadcast before. The test will allow
the Federal Emergency Management Agency to check how effective a
nationwide alert would be. Stephen Cantelme is with the
Sacramento Office of Emergency Services. He says the feds are
already hoping to use social media to help get such a message
out.
CANTELME:"It's probably something that's just right around the corner. I know in Alaska where they did this in 2010 to test this on a statewide basis, they learned a lot of things from that."
The message will last for three minutes and will differ
somewhat from the tests we're used to. The audio test will
repeat, "this is a test" but on television, the message scrolling
on screen may not always indicate that it's a test.