Alert Tones

FYI-Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2:18 p.m., all the cellphones in the United States are going to transmit a loud tone such as an Amber Alert tone. A message in the center of the screen will say it is a Presidential Alert to test national emergency alert and no action is needed. Hopefully, people will read the part, no action needed.

We have all become used to the loud tone on the television or radio for Amber Alerts, Code Red alerts on cellphones, or the tornado sirens placed around the county. These are other ways to alert the public about weather or missing children or older people.

One reason given for testing of the new national alert system is to try and prevent a repeat of the panic caused last year in Hawaii when the islands were alerted to incoming ballistic missiles by the same agency sending out the alert today.

Some 75 years ago, a radio broadcast about aliens arriving on Earth caused wide-spread panic. Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre players staged the prank broadcast on Halloween Eve. Back then radio was the major entertainment for millions of people. There was no advertisement or promotion to warn folks of the fake invasion, so many took it seriously.

From that day forward when Orson Welles name was mentioned in print or broadcasts it always referred to the radio broadcast he did of the “War of the World.