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.

 

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.