Editing Emergency Broadcast System (section)

== System uses ==
[[File:WGN EBS EAN.JPG|thumb|right|Video slide from a prerecorded announcement of the stand-by script of an EAN from [[WGN-TV]], [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]], in 1985, during the period of the Emergency Broadcast System. This EAN announcement was never seen on the airwaves of WGN-TV itself, but was posted to [[YouTube]] in March 2017.]]
[[File:Emergency Broadcast System mid-1990s logo.JPG|thumb|One of the final logos of the Emergency Broadcast System, as seen during a test conducted by [[WHO-TV]] in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], c. Late 1996]]
Though it was never used, the FCC's EBS plan involved detailed procedures for stations to follow during an EAN. It included precise scripts that announcers were to read at the outset of the emergency, as well as whenever detailed information was scarce. Among other things, citizens were instructed not to use the telephone, but rather continue listening to broadcast stations for information.<ref name=":6">[[Emergency Broadcast System#cite ref-:5 7-0]]</ref>

"''The Emergency Broadcast System will carry presidential messages from the National Command Post as they are broadcast. Locally programmed broadcasts from the Emergency Broadcast System will provide you with news of the situation and emergency instructions for your area.''"<ref name=":6" />

As late as 1981, the Emergency Broadcast System was capable of carrying messages pertaining to both immediate threats of nuclear attack and messages from the [[President of the United States]].<ref name=":4">https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/public/2022-03/40-654-6207642-019-002-2021.pdf</ref> In the event of a national emergency, the [[White House Press Secretary]] would be expected to report to the FEMA Special Facility at [[Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center|Mount Weather]] and order the playing of prerecorded messages. These tapes contained scripted attack warnings, recorded siren sounds and other emergency information for use in the event of nuclear war.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

As official information began to emerge from various sources, non-primary stations were to broadcast it according to the following priority list:
* Messages from the [[president of the United States]]
* Statewide emergency information
* Local emergency information (for a station's operational area, i.e. evacuation and sheltering plans, and [[severe weather]])
* National programming and news (other than a presidential message)

A presidential message was always required to be aired live during an EAN. For other information, stations were to follow the priority list to decide what should be disseminated first. Lower priority official programming - such as an address by a State Governor - was to be recorded for the earliest available rebroadcast unless it were to be an "unusually long" message, in which case it would be carried live.<ref>{{cite AV media |date=May 19, 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmCYGdmcNs |title=North Carolina EBS Training |publisher=Chris Shebel |via=[[YouTube]] |access-date=August 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122140401/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmCYGdmcNs |archive-date=November 22, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Participation in EAN emergency broadcasting was done with the "voluntary cooperation" of each station (as noted in the classic test announcement). Stations that were not prepared to be part of the national EBS network were classified as "non-participating" by the FCC. During an EAN, a non-participating station was required to advise listeners/viewers to tune elsewhere to find emergency bulletins. The station's transmitter would then be turned off. Non-participating stations had to remain off the air until the EAN was terminated. Under no circumstances could any broadcast station continue with normal programming during a national emergency.

"''All stations not authorized to remain on the air as part of the United States Emergency Broadcast System have been instructed to go off the air''."<ref name=":6" />

Since FCC rules prohibited unofficial or non-governmental news, information, or entertainment programming during EBS operations, the federal government established a newsroom at Mount Weather. President Gerald Ford's White House Press Secretary, Ron Nessen, confirmed the existence of the news center in his book: "''I was shown the president's office and living quarters, my office, and facilities for a small number of reporters who would be evacuated with the president''."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nessen |first=Ron |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RHaeWRPPPKQC |title=Making the News, Taking the News: From NBC to the Ford White House |page=237 |date=2012-01-01 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-7157-1 |language=en}}</ref>