WGN Channel 9 - Emergency Broadcast System [White Card Message] - "This is NOT a Test" (1985)
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- čas přidán 2. 03. 2017
- Here's a pretty spooky clip - transferred from an RCA Quad cart (for playing on model TCR-100 cart machines) loaded with 2" videotape.
A Fuzzy Personal Note: "I grew up at the height of the 2nd great nuclear war scare period (the first being the Cuban Missile Crisis of course), having been chilled to the bone from seeing movies like “The Day After” in 1983 when I was nine years old. So this clip was very fascinating to me, and seems to be a glimpse at what we might have seen on TV had the unthinkable occurred."
This cart was donated by Rick Garofalo, a long-time employee of WGN-TV, before retiring a couple of years ago. In this video clip ( • 9 1 hd rtn 2015 02 06 ... ), you can see Rick on his last day at work (2/6/15) chatting with the WGN Morning News team and showing off the very cart where this clip was extracted from.
Here's some close-up pictures of the cart ( pg/FuzzyMemo... ), including a sticker on the inside that gives a date of 4/22/85. (The "J.E.W initials on the sticker stand for James E. Walters, a longtime engineer at WGN-TV who retired a few years ago)
Thanks also to our longtime Fuzzy Contributor Extraordinaire Mr. Chris Tufts, for donating the funds to get this cartridge transferred to digital.
Thanks to commentator David Wilson for this background information - "For those of you with familiarity with this script, you'll recognize the "White Card" information being read. It's also known as SS-1, an Emergency Action Notification (EAN-1) without the Attack Warning Message. If there had been an attack warning, such as an incoming nuclear strike, the Emergency Action Notification (EAN-2) was to read the dreaded "Red Card." The text of that script will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, especially if you lived through the Cold War like I did."
Boy, it sure would be neat to find the Red card message from one of our local stations. :-)
Voiceover by Floyd Brown.
"We interrupt our program at the request of the White House, this is the Emergency Broadcast System. All normal broadcasting has been discontinued during this emergency. This is Station WGN Television. This station will continue to broadcast, furnishing news, official information and instruction, as soon as possible, for the northeast section of Illinois. If you are not in the northeast section of Illinois, tune to a station furnishing information for your area. I repeat. We interrupt our program at the request of the White House, this is the Emergency Broadcast System. All normal broadcasting has been discontinued during this (spoken as 'the') emergency. This station will continue to broadcast, furnishing news, official information and instruction (spoken as 'instructions'), as soon as possible, for the northeast section of Illinois. If you are not in the northeast section of Illinois, tune to a station furnishing information for your area. Do not use your telephone. The telephone lines should be kept open for official use. The Emergency Broadcast System has been activated to keep you informed. To repeat. This is Station WGN Television. This station will broadcast news, official information and instruction for the Northeast section of Illinois. If you are in northeast section of Illinois, keep tuned to this station for further emergency information. It is important that you listen carefully to announcements only on the station broadcasting information for your area."
We can probably be thankful this didn't air, but if it did, it very well could have been on Monday, April 22nd 1985. (a.k.a., the date the world ended in Alternate Universe #4702-AA-23-QZ808)
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Play at 0.5 speed to hear a dramatization of a drunk announcer commandeering the station and activating the Emergency Broadcast System as a joke to scare the kiddies during Scooby-Doo.
LOL. That makes it a lot less scary!
If this was an actual emergency a lot of people would be getting drunk out of their minds.
After being replaced by the EAS, the EBS really fell on hard times...
.75 works even better.
Makes it sound like he had one too many beers.
Wow, all the hairs on my arms and legs are standing on end. All of us who were children in the 1960s and 1970s lived in fear that a day would come where a message like this needed to be aired.
Yeah, it's one thing to hear it's a severe weather warning, which is what I'm used to. But that bit about "...at the request of the White House"?! Oh, shhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...
Jim Grey to this day I'm still terrified when I hear or see something like this especially when they do it on the radio now. Traumatized is something that modern day Society doesn't know about going to school watching the Duck and Cover films living through the Cold War yes this is very real to most of us to this day.
And 80's and 90's
As good as the quality of the master tape of this message is, it is a good testament to this - thankfully - never having to be used.
I wonder if the "Red Card" message tape from WGN is floating around somewhere? I've heard "Red Card" messages from old radio station carts before so not TV and not WGN, but that one is really eerie to hear played out; the one message we were never supposed to (hopefully) EVER hear.
For those of you with familiarity with this script, you'll recognize the "White Card" information being read. It's also known as SS-1, an Emergency Action Notification (EAN-1) without the Attack Warning Message. If there had been an attack warning, such as an incoming nuclear strike, the Emergency Action Notification (EAN-2) was to read the dreaded "Red Card." The text of that script will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, especially if you lived through the Cold War like I did.
Right. The "Red Card" was the true doomsday message back then. But thanks to the mutually assured destruction (MAD) theory, nobody nuked the hell out of each other.
I know someone posted the red card online ( picture, with script visible if you zoom in)...just reading it IS scary as heck
What DOES the redcard say? I've only heard the white card
@@CaribouGirlMeat There's a copy of it online here: www.ae5d.com/images/EBS-28rzx.png
It's the most feared broadcast message. Essentially, it means that the end of the world is in progress.
@@damonthaplaya8443 Exactly. As a former boss once told me (he is retired Navy from the late 60s/early 70s), after Cuba, it was simply "who has more."
This just is scary as sin! Imagine having this pop up on ANY local station at the height of the cold war, and being scared shitless (that's as brutally blunt as I can get it).
The EBS logo seen here looks scary enough - to see it during a real national emergency would make it infinitely worse.
It is 1.43 PM. I first watched this 12 hours ago. You can imagine how creepy that was.
Imagine seeing this happen while watching Bozo the Clown. Seriously, though, my co-workers were rather moved when I showed them this.
I must say though the quality on this videotape is top notch. But given the situation it would've been quite the thing had there been say a nuclear attack on Chicago. This reminds me of the infamous 1971 WOWO Fort Wayne, IN radio mistake when someone accidentally called for the EBS (now EAS) and it caused a panic. It even happened at WCCO Radio in Minneapolis, according to audio I heard from the Radiotapes website.
Just to be clear, this isn't from an off-air recording. This is from the actual EBS Cart #2 that was at the station, ready to be used if it should ever be necessary.
No wonder!
The white zone is for loading and unloading only, there is no stopping in the red zone
The red zone is for loading and unloading only. There is no stopping in the white zone.
The red zone is for the crapping of bricks and praying for mercy only.
Here we go again!
Haunting! But fascinating. Thanks for this!
So glad I never heard this announcement in the 1970s. I’m also glad that our local civil defense siren never sounded in the wailing tone which for my town meant to take cover at once because nuclear attack was imminent.
This seems strangely calm for a terrible tragedy
They would prerecord these announcements because the tendency for the announcer would be to start hyperventilating...
Serves no purpose to be hysteric. Better calm to try to keep public calm.
Very rare find...thanks for sharing!
I wonder if the Red Card TV message will ever be found, since only radio recordings have been found.
It's arguably the single most terrifying TV recording ever made.
I love videos like these I wish we could see more of these "Alternate universe" videos
Fascinating. Thanks. Boy am I glad WGN never had to use this! 😅😅😅
Alternate Universe #4702-AA-23-QZ808 should have a spin-off series taking place after the Great War of 1985.
"Furnishing?"
I think I just discovered that one of my favorite content creators follows the same subreddit as me...? I mean it's pretty popular.
And yeah. Unfurnished news is like pizza with no cheese.
Providing.
"Thankfully, this was not an actual emergency. Had this been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed to place your head between your knees and kiss your sorry butt good-bye. This was only a test. Have a nice rest of your day." :D
a fantastic add to my halloween playlist :)
On the other hand, I’m reminded of the good old days before automation when announcements were made by live human beings instead of computers.
With the attention signal and the 3T22 siren alert it'd be creepier.
A picture of this is on a Wikipedia page about the Emergency Broadcast System.
You know things are about to go South very quick when they mention the White House or the President on an EBS or EAS message
This Week Was The Final Week Of
Time Machine On NBC Daytime
Ah, this is what I love. A EAS with just text to speech. No loud sounds or beeps.
Strange that the announcement mentions northeastern Illinois, but not northwestern Indiana, which is also a part of the Chicago TV market.
JulianAlpsNews Probably wanted you to tune to a station in Rockford.
South Bend is the primary TV market for NW Indiana. Chicago stations cross over into Wisconsin too. But that area is primarily served by Milwaukee.
When you see or hear the words "EMERGENCY ACTION NOTIFICATION" you know that we're all gonna die!
Here's a question: If the attack did happen, would WGN kill their cable feed or keep it going?
Alexander Falarski that's a good question.
I would have assumed that they used different feeds for national and local. Like TBS.
Ironically, the same wasn't true about WGN at the start, since they simply ported their Chicago feed via satellite and the matter of a separate feed for national didn't happen until the passing of the current SyndEx law that went into effect at the start of the 90's.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndication_exclusivity
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGN-TV#National_superstation
KStarCLG Before then, I barely recall WTBS doing much Atlanta-based stuff like commercials since they tend to position themselves more nationally than the others.
Now we have WPCH-TV to be a semi-local superstation (Peachtree TV). But its also trying to become national like TBS. Even though they are both owned by Turner.
Scary!
This popped up in my feed...👀
This is the first time I've seen the "Red Card" EAN message from a television station. I wonder if more of these exist somewhere at other stations?
Also I thought the "Red Card" message had to specify that it was an attack warning?
EDIT: I see the title was changed, I could have sworn at one point the video description said "#2 red card" and the pictures of the cart on Facebook show a label that says "EBS #2" but it makes more sense that this is the "White Card" message since it doesn't specify that this is an attack warning. Still chilling nonetheless.
This isn't a Red Card EAN. This is a _White Card EAN._ A Red Card EAN means that an enemy attack (like a nuclear attack) is imminent, while the White Card EAN means (I guess) that the President or his/her representative is about to inform the country that a national emergency is about to happen (or is in progress if it's not attack-related).
@@damonthaplaya8443that makes more sense now... at one point the video description specified that it was "#2 red card" but I see the title was changed afterwards. It did seem a bit off that the Red Card message didn't specify an actual attack if that were the case.
Assuming that "EBS #1" cart was probably the test cart, "EBS #2" this one and a potential "EBS #3" would have been attack warning. All of the EBS slides/bumpers were probably pre-made but needed a live attention signal to be inserted.
you guys should see the Emergency alert system test from this station from 1999
very eerie and creepy
To put it simply; "We're all going to die".
"DO NOT USE YOUR TELEPHONE," always translates to each individual in the USA, "Except you because you are entitled, due to higher levels of importance."
In other words: making an unnecessary phone call can and will endanger somebody else who has an actual emergency. Leave those phone lines up for emergency and/or military use only.
The announcer's voice is unusually chipper and upbeat considering the weight of such an announcement. I would have expected something a little more ominous.
You want people to remain calm, a mass panic helps nobody.
Back in that time they were pre-recorded. I doubt anyone could keep calm during a live broadcast of the script.
What kind of accent is this? I'm not sure if this is called a transatlantic accent? But it's quite common in the old American TV shows, news, etc..
This is a Midwest accent. His pronunciation of "tune" is pretty conservative though.
Very spooky
The announcer sounds like he may as well be advertising plastic slipcovers.
How many TCR-100 's still exist in Chicago and World wide?
Working ones?
Jackleg guess: 6-12. Maybe.
Get used to seeing this. This is not a test.
You know stations can broadcast emergency messages in any language, but if they transmit a presidential address, can they give a translation or a synopsis of what he said in the station's own language? For example, if a radio station in Louisiana does programmes in Cajun French , can they translate a presidential address or give a synopsis of what's said, or give regional information in Cajun French?
That is a very interesting question. While not Cajun French or Quebecois French (Quebec standard of French is a minority language in the New England states) there were already a good number of television already broadcasting in Spanish across the United States at this point, including one in Chicago. More than likely, those stations would have had a pre-recorded "Red Card/White Card" announcement in their own language, but as for the EBS message from the White House itself, that (audio only, BTW) would have gone out as is over dedicated phone lines linked directly to the radio/TV stations relaying the national EBS message. Perhaps (and this is just an assumption, I don't know) in regions/cities where there was a large population of minority language speakers, they could have set up a designated station specifically set up for translating into Spanish, French, etc... though I've never read of any sort of plan being set up.
Since emergency alerting went digital in 1997 with the establishment of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to replace the old EBS, and the system became integrated with a computerized method of sending out messages, warnings can be sent out in multiple languages at least on screen.
I'm guessing the "Red Card" version has a red background instead of the blue one.
Broadcast accepted.
Why do you think they are putting this out again, its 20 years old
I was brought up cold war nuclear era
No two-tone attention signal?
scary...
Who was attacking us, Russia or North Korea? ☢️
how would you even get this if you werent in illinois at that time
rip dinosaurs
no headers ?
Strange that it doesn't tell you what the emergency is
Read the video description.
Kinda really bothers me that they put their giant website logo over every video they make. What's the point of an online archive if every video is going to be tainted with their massive fuzzy memories logo? Especially something very cool like this that will never be available any other way.
It's watermarked because Fuzzy Memories took the time to obtain and transfer the original analog tape to digital format so you can see this. They did the work otherwise it would not be here. Wouldn't you want recognition for your work?
Copyright reasons, m'kay? If you want to remake this, ask the uploader and then give credit in the video and/or description upon releasing the video. You don't wanna go to that Happy Tree Friends copyright school.
@@damonthaplaya8443 plus let's not forget there are people whom will steal a video and claim it as their own.
@@newstarcadefan true that.
Anybody know what happened that day even if a real day contains an attack?
Then President Ronald Reagan made one too many "let's bomb Russia" jokes on the air.
Me: all shiz here we go again
Where is Uncle Larry and Little Tommy with Animal Stories...
Was that a test or an actual emergency situation? If it was real, then what was the actual emergency?
What was the emergency that they had to disrupt normal programing?
There was no emergency. This was real, but it was never used.
What do you mean the world ended in an alternate universe? Please explain? What happened on that day?
Story time:
God created the multiverse, not just our universe. There are infinite alternate universes where the outcome(s) of (an) important historic event(s) (for an example, World War II) is different than the outcome that we have in this universe (instead of the Allies winning in our universe, the Axis wins the war in some alternate universe). (The Man in The High Castle is a famously known alternate history novel, I highly suggest you read it.) Like Rick from Rick and Morty said, "Infinite realities, infinite possibilities."
So in Alternate Universe #4702-AA-23-QZ808, a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union happened, causing civilization to collapse.
So be grateful that you weren't born in a post-apocalyptic world where we would most likely be living in colonies without electricity, running water or government support. The scary thing is that this could happen to *our world,* if we are not too careful.
@@damonthaplaya8443
Is there a specific "format" for designations such as '4703-22-aa-qz808'? Preferably relegated to SCP knowledge bases rather than 1 or more volumes with indexed with a LOC alphaneric reference.
@@ericondler4822 This has nothing to do with SCP. I read the video's description mentioning said parallel universe.
Hey guys how are you?
Um I live in north Illinois I’m scared
I wonder what that was all about.
At least it’s not Like modern day EAS.
The word tunnelvision gives me the chills because i think of the inside of a creepy sewer pipe.
Huh. No Attention Signal.
Would have been generated live to air with a special EBS generator.
If this is real (im not sure) than this is the only time any emergency system has been used nationally for a real emergency
Read the video description.
@@KathyKleinMusic .........no......
@@newyorkgaming5283 Well then you're an idiot
1) This is real
2) It was never used
HOONIGANNNNNNNNN
I think this is message #1 WHITE CARD, message #2 red card was the attack warning.
No, take a look at the pictures of the cart that this was transferred from. It's the #2 message.
facebook.com/pg/FuzzyMemories.TV/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10154878851520336
The page ae5d.com/ebs.html has images of the "red card" and the "white card" circa 1971. This announcement looks more like the one on the white card, but a lot changed between 1971 and 1985, so it could have been the red card in effect as of 1985. Anyone have a copy of that?
Wow, the year I was born, and we were still prepping for potential imminent death.
This was posted on Nintendo Switch day.
Ugh. This is just weird.
Even More Weirder (if that's even a word) that he has Repeated the Announcement 3 Times.
You'll notice the message is slightly different each time it's repeated. I think the script they were given specified what they were supposed to say. They probably want to make sure people heard at least part of it.
This was probably meant to be played on a loop. The cart may be designed to replay automatically.
Is this real
Me: Not in the North East section of Illinois
Alert: If you are not in the North East section of Illinois, tune to a station broadcasting news for your area.
Me, A rebel: Nah. This is good.
What happened
Our universe, nothing. But the alternate universe mentioned in the description, end of the world.
at least im in ne illinois
😆
404th like not found
Relax folks, it will be GOOD news !!
Professor Farnsworth: "Good news everyone! We're under attack!
Bender: "Well we're boned. Time to start looting!"
1.25 and it’s an advertisement
Christ!
this was a false alarm
As someone who had a career as a master control operator, working all over the country, it is my professional opinion that this alert is faked. It's too clean a copy for one. Surely it would have been dubbed to VHS back in those days and yet there are no VHS markers or tracking issues. Secondly, the fonts are too advanced for 1985. Also, where are the alert tones? For any alert, especially a supposed EAN, and this is key, the attention tones would have gone off , especially since this supposedly a live activation, before whoever voiced this thing said a word. Where are they? I've studied the EAS, all the way back to CONRELAD and all I can say is if anyone is fooled by this, I feel sorry for them. But hey, "E" for effort, right? At least there are no spelling/grammar errors. And by the way, saying this was posted from someone on the "inside" is silly. Assuming this were real, anyone could have taped it off the air, which is what one would expect instead of this crap here.
I think the alert tones would be sounded _before_ the airing of the tape.
@Mike Crook - Dude, read the video description for crying out loud.