For the first time in my life I experienced the Emergency Broadcast System used for a non-test situation.

This girl is missing, they did two alerts while I was watching Smallville on the local WB feed (8pm-9pm) last night.

According to the NBC station they are still looking for her:

http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/4250951/detail.html


I was wondering why the "crawl" at the bottom of the screen wasn't utilized in addition to an "interupt" to the broadcast?

Does anyone know how this stuff works?

c-

I've seen at least three of those in my area in the past year or so.
I wonder how someone who is watching TV is going to spot a fugitive or kidnapper in a car, but hey, if they think it will work...

--PunkDavid

TVs playing in bars, restaurants, Jiffy Lubes, doctor's offices, electronic's stores, gymnasiums ...

... plus, anyone watching TV before they leave the house.

Come on man, you don't have a TV monitor embedded into your steering wheel?

This brings up an interesting question--what should these emergency broadcasts be reserved for? Just missing children? What about missing adults? How about news of a armed bank robbery or car chase?

This doesn't really have a right or wrong answer--just curious.

Yeah, I got the same alert you did. I'm not a fan of this. I think it could be implemented better. Like maybe instead of cutting off every single channel with the alert, have a little text scroller at the top of the screen that says "Blah, blah alert, turn to channel XX for details". Or just something else. It sucks the way it is now.

On I-5 in Washington State there are huge reader boards on which the amber alerts are announced (is that true in other states?). I've seen a couple of alerts on my drive to work; they post the license plate of the suspect's vehicle and hope someone calls in. the cool thing is that it works pretty well.

we get them on TV, too, but since I'm rarely watching TV (cuz I'm too busy driving ) this works a little better.

That's the way they've done it around here when I've seen them. Much like a weather alert. A little beeping to get your attention then a scroll along the bottom. So if you're a heartless bastard it's not interrupting your viewing of a Seinfeld rerun.

... an Arab is photographing a bridge, someone left their wallet on the subway, my puppy ran away, Office Peterson really has to pee, Scott Stevens of 347 Westbury St. stubbed his toe ....

I have no idea, someone told me that they instituted use of it after an incident where, had it been used in a case some time back, the kidnapper could have been prevented from getting out of the area, or something like that. I don't have the exact case or details though.

Tera Cota Alert, Off-White Alert, Royal Blue Alert...

I don't even have a radio in my car to tune into the station they post on the big highway signs.


I was thinking, if you saw the car, and then got home, and turned on the tv, as many people tend to do, you "might" see it. But, it was such a quick interuption, you most likely would not - hense my question about a crawl in addition to it..... one would more likely notice a crawl that is running for 15 or 20 minutes in intervals, than a 10-30 second interupt, right?

I think "crawls" have to be originated by the network who owns the channel or something? vs. the Emergency alert that is an interupt (I guess you could call it a legal hack) into a broadcast?

c-

You make these kind of comments often ... do you live in a commune or something?

I'm still wondering if this has ever been used on children who weren't pretty little white girls...

until its your kid who is missing

we had one this past week, and the word is that the girl was reported missing for 3-5 hours before the alert was actually issued to verify the story or something, seems like a long time to wait

Yes. Yes it has.

I totally disagree. I just dont think it's the right way to do it, I didnt say it shouldnt be done.

The one they had in Milwaukee last week was a six week old black baby abducted by her father.

--PunkDavid

And the fact that it was a black child matters because?

It matters because the post he quoted implied that it was only used for pretty little white girls.

and he was pointing out that its used for all kids, regardless of race.