New Hampshire broadcasters should mark their calendars for two significant events on Wednesday, October 4, 2023. That’s the day of NHAB’s annual convention and Granite Mikes Award ceremony at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord (look elsewhere in this site for details).
On the same day, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct a national test of the Emergency Alert System. At 2:20 p.m. EDT that day all radio and television broadcasters – and all cable TV franchises – in America will simultaneously air a test. For the first time the event code for the test will be NPT, for National Periodic Test.
Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) outlets will also participate, meaning many people’s cell phones will be interrupted at 2:18 p.m. EDT with this language “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
For the first time, both tests will be transmitted in English and Spanish.
As in previous years, broadcasters are required to report how their stations reacted to the test in the FCC’s EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) following this schedule:
- Form One on or before September 15, 2023.
- Form Two on or before October 5, 2023.
- Form Three on or before November 20, 2023.
ETRS Forms Two and Three will become available in ETRS on October 4, 2023, at the time of initiation
of the 2023 nationwide test.
If conditions are unfavorable for a test on October 4, the test will be conducted at the same time a week later (October 18). Read the FCC’s press release here.
Yes, a nationwide emergency alert test will happen on Oct. 4, 2023 - McKinney News Source
September 1, 2023 at 4:05 pm[…] Multiple state broadcast associations alerted their member stations in preparation for this radio and television Emergency Alert System test. […]