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Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It was the most commonly used, along with the Emergency Override system. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system and was used from 1963 to 1997, at which point it was replaced by the Emergency Alert System.
The system was established to provide the president of the United States with an expeditious method of communicating with the American public in the event of war, threat of war, or grave national crisis. It was modeled after Civ-Alert, an emergency warning system in Hawaii. The Emergency Broadcast System replaced CONELRAD on August 5, 1963. In later years, it was expanded for use during peacetime emergencies at the state and local levels.
Although the system was never used for a national emergency, it was activated more than 20,000 times between 1976 and 1996 to broadcast civil emergency messages and warnings of severe weather hazards.
An order to activate the EBS at the national level would have originated with the president and been relayed via the White House Communications Agency duty officer to one of two origination points – either the Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) or the Federal Preparedness Agency (FPA) – as the system stood in 1978. Participating telecommunications common carriers, radio and television networks, the Associated Press, and United Press International would receive and authenticate (by means of code words) an Emergency Action Notification (EAN) via a teletypewriter network designed specifically for this purpose. These recipients would relay the EAN to their subscribers and affiliates.
Enemy attack or nuclear attack warning procedures under EBS changed with time. In 2024, the United States National Archives made available prerecorded messages dating to 1972 that were intended to be played during a national activation of the Emergency Broadcast System. A presidential EBS activation message without attack warning appears at 1:05:55 on side 2 of prerecorded tape number 027:
"The United States Emergency Broadcast System has been activated by direction of the President of the United States because of a grave national emergency. The Emergency Broadcast System comprises all communications facilities designated and authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to operate during a period of national emergency."
This "grave national emergency" message recording and script above was not in use by individual stations or published in any known FCC document.
The release of the EAN by the Aerospace Defense Command or the Federal Preparedness Agency would initiate a process by which the common carriers would link otherwise independent networks such as ABC, CBS, and NBC into a single national network from which even independent stations could receive programming. "Broadcast stations would have used the 2-tone Attention Signal on their assigned broadcast frequency to alert other broadcast stations to stand by for a message from the president." The transmission of programming on a broadcast station's assigned frequency, and the fact that television networks/stations and FM radio stations could participate, distinguished EBS from CONELRAD. EBS radio stations would not necessarily transmit on 640 or 1240 on the AM dial, and FM radio and television would carry the same audio program as AM radio stations did.
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Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It was the most commonly used, along with the Emergency Override system. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system and was used from 1963 to 1997, at which point it was replaced by the Emergency Alert System.
The system was established to provide the president of the United States with an expeditious method of communicating with the American public in the event of war, threat of war, or grave national crisis. It was modeled after Civ-Alert, an emergency warning system in Hawaii. The Emergency Broadcast System replaced CONELRAD on August 5, 1963. In later years, it was expanded for use during peacetime emergencies at the state and local levels.
Although the system was never used for a national emergency, it was activated more than 20,000 times between 1976 and 1996 to broadcast civil emergency messages and warnings of severe weather hazards.
An order to activate the EBS at the national level would have originated with the president and been relayed via the White House Communications Agency duty officer to one of two origination points – either the Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) or the Federal Preparedness Agency (FPA) – as the system stood in 1978. Participating telecommunications common carriers, radio and television networks, the Associated Press, and United Press International would receive and authenticate (by means of code words) an Emergency Action Notification (EAN) via a teletypewriter network designed specifically for this purpose. These recipients would relay the EAN to their subscribers and affiliates.
Enemy attack or nuclear attack warning procedures under EBS changed with time. In 2024, the United States National Archives made available prerecorded messages dating to 1972 that were intended to be played during a national activation of the Emergency Broadcast System. A presidential EBS activation message without attack warning appears at 1:05:55 on side 2 of prerecorded tape number 027:
"The United States Emergency Broadcast System has been activated by direction of the President of the United States because of a grave national emergency. The Emergency Broadcast System comprises all communications facilities designated and authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to operate during a period of national emergency."
This "grave national emergency" message recording and script above was not in use by individual stations or published in any known FCC document.
The release of the EAN by the Aerospace Defense Command or the Federal Preparedness Agency would initiate a process by which the common carriers would link otherwise independent networks such as ABC, CBS, and NBC into a single national network from which even independent stations could receive programming. "Broadcast stations would have used the 2-tone Attention Signal on their assigned broadcast frequency to alert other broadcast stations to stand by for a message from the president." The transmission of programming on a broadcast station's assigned frequency, and the fact that television networks/stations and FM radio stations could participate, distinguished EBS from CONELRAD. EBS radio stations would not necessarily transmit on 640 or 1240 on the AM dial, and FM radio and television would carry the same audio program as AM radio stations did.