Emergency Action Notification

An Emergency Action Notification (SAME code: EAN) is the national activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and can only be activated by the President or his/her representative (i.e. the Vice President).^[1] The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) also carried the Emergency Action Notification. It has never been used by any President since its creation.

Operation

EAN messages are treated similarly to other EAS messages. When a message is received, the receiver is to open an audio channel to the originating source until the End of Message (EOM) tones are received. After the EOM is received, the station is then allowed to resume normal programming.^{[lower-alpha 1][2]}

The order of broadcast

1. Presidential message (For example, an air attack warning or presidential address)
2. Reports from local, state or regional authorities (such as of fallout or aid)
3. National Information Center

Background

The term "Emergency Action Notification" was created when the Emergency Broadcast System went into place in 1963. Before the mid-1970s, this was the only non-test activation permitted (the same rule also applied to the earlier CONELRAD system). The EAN signifies of a national emergency, as the wording shows. The Office of Civil Defense originally created the term for the national emergency notification enactment. FEMA soon took over after its creation.

Past operation

Unlike other messages, the EAN was not the alert itself, but rather a notice that the activation is beginning.^[3] After the End of Message (EOM) tones were sent, normal programming did not resume. Instead, most stations were to broadcast emergency information in a specific priority order. Messages from the President are always broadcast first. Next comes local messages, statewide and regional messages, and finally national messages not originating from the President.^{[lower-alpha 2][4]} When an EAN was initially received, and during any time a new message was not available, an FCC mandated standby script was used (and repeated).^[5] Other stations, which held special permission from the FCC, would sign off until the end of the EAN.^[6]

Normal programming would not resume until the transmission of an Emergency Action Termination message (SAME code: EAT).^[5]

False alarms

On October 24, 2014, television viewers of certain stations in Atlanta, Detroit, and Austin reported seeing EAN messages and notifications that the programming was being interrupted by the White House, despite the fact that there was no real emergency.^[7][8]

References

1. "FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.53". Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
2. FCC. "Review of the Emergency Alert System A Rule by the Federal Communications Commission on 03/22/2012". Federal Register. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
3. "FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.13". Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
4. "FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.44". Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
5. "FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.54". Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
6. "FCC Rules Part 11 Subpart D § 11.41". Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
7. "Customers report strange emergency messages". Fox News. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
8. "Cable customers startled by 'Emergency Alerts'". Cable News Network. Retrieved 30 June 2016.

Notes

1. Unlike other messages EANs do not time out after two minutes
2. Some documents refer to these as "messages from the National Information Center (or NIC)". While there is a SAME code for this type of message (NIC), there exists no FCC definition of the National Information Center.