Bobby Bones Show Emergency EAS Signal Results in $1 Million Fine
It’s not just the music and radio skits that are bad noise coming from the nationally-syndicated Bobby Bones Show. On October 24th, 2014, the iHeartMedia syndicated morning show broadcast emergency EAS signals (the blaring fax-like sounds) out on their syndicated network, causing sheer panic to transpire in some communities as the signals were rebroadcast on television, showing some television viewers a message saying a national emergency was underway, and to stand by for a message from the White House.
“The station has interrupted its regular programming at the request of the White House to participate in the Emergency Alert System,” the message said in part, and warned viewers to keep telephone lines open for emergency use only. The message was seen by AT&T U-Verse customers in Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, Detroit and other locations. Local viewers scrambled to figure out what the emergency was while the warning forced televisions of U-Verse subscribers to tune to one specific channel and wouldn’t allow it to be changed.
The inappropriate tone was discovered to come from WSIX-FM in Nashville—the home of The Bobby Bones Show. The Emergency Alert System was activated during a segment on the show where Bobby Bones was discussing a test of the EAS system during Game 2 of the World Series. As part of the segment, they played a YouTube clip over the air of a 2011 nationwide test of the system which included the tones to activate it and alert others to rebroadcast the signal. When AT&T’s U-Verse system received the signal, it immediately locked down subscriber’s televisions and displayed the warning of a national emergency.
Today, the FCC has fined Bobby Bones’ parent company iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) $1 million for the inappropriate and unauthorized use of the EAS tones. The company has admitted its culpability and has also agreed to institute a three-year compliance and reporting plan and eliminate EAS tones from its production libraries. “The public counts on EAS tones to alert them to real emergencies,” said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc in a statement. “Misuse of the emergency alert system jeopardizes the nation’s public safety, falsely alarms the public, and undermines confidence in the emergency alert system.”
The Bobby Bones Show has grown into the biggest “country music” radio show ever through iHeartMedia vast radio empire. The show regularly stirs controversy, including high-profile brushups with Kacey Musgraves and Texas country star Aaron Watson.
Sam Jimenez
May 19, 2015 @ 11:46 am
I sure hope they don’t have too much trouble coming up with the cash.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
May 19, 2015 @ 11:47 am
really? these clowns couldn’t take time from watching Bobby try breaking his record for most grapes up his nose to tell everyone they’d be playing the tone? Maybe they were too busy testing the life jackets Bobby wears to keep from drowning in all the makeup they have to use to keep him from looking like Jabba the Hutt.
Andrew
May 19, 2015 @ 11:56 am
It’s not about telling people they were going to play it. Most broadcast EAS systems are automated and the frequency of the tone activates it without any human involvement.
Andrew
May 19, 2015 @ 11:48 am
I work in radio and I can’t begin to comprehend how anyone could make it to where he has in the business and not realize that playing that tone was a terrible idea.
Mike
May 19, 2015 @ 1:59 pm
I was in radio management for 27 years and thought the same thing. This is inexcusable and remedial radio knowledge. Anyone else would have been fired immediately. The fact that this clown is national is inconceivable.
Truth No. 2
May 19, 2015 @ 12:15 pm
For ONCE, I’m glad to have Lisa Dent and Ramblin’ Ray; they’re not half as dumb as this guy appears to be.
Scott
May 19, 2015 @ 12:40 pm
$1M is getting off light
Dan H
May 19, 2015 @ 12:44 pm
It says they fined Bones’ parent company, so does that mean Bones pretty much doesn’t have to pay anything and just got off the hook?
Sam Jimenez
May 19, 2015 @ 12:46 pm
He has been issued a stern scowl from a suited employee to let him know that this kind of behavior WILL NOT be appreciated.
Trigger
May 19, 2015 @ 1:06 pm
My guess that would be decided between iHeart and his show, but the FCC didn’t fine Bobby or his producers. He tweeted today that a monkey was now off his back, so maybe he got off scott free.
Liza
May 19, 2015 @ 1:34 pm
He should be fired for tweeting “BREAKING: a monkey just climbed off my back.”. Low life.
Dan H
May 19, 2015 @ 1:35 pm
Yeah that what it is sounding like, like he got off scott free but who knows what happens behind closed doors. Like Sam said I’m sure the suits gave him a real stern talking too, and then went on their way.
Mike
May 19, 2015 @ 2:07 pm
The FCC does not fine individuals. They fine companies/networks/radio stations. In other words, whoever broadcasts the signal. It’s up to the company to enact discipline, if any.
JD
May 19, 2015 @ 8:47 pm
The FCC does fine individuals – ham radio operators, and individuals busted for pirate operations…
Stephen
May 19, 2015 @ 1:06 pm
I’m very thankful that Bones is not in my market here in Montgomery, Alabama.
hiYUN
May 19, 2015 @ 1:37 pm
Small child… That’s what this guy reminds me of. And screw these massive corporations ruining my music, I was hoping it would be a 10 billion dollar fine and put iHeartRadio out of business… Ok, maybe that’s not feasible, but you understand what I mean.
Sophie
May 19, 2015 @ 5:03 pm
Bones is the man. Y’all are just hatin’ because he’s out there killin’ it. Whether you agree, or not he is the NUMBER 1 country show in America, and now that country is becoming one of the most popular genres, he is only getting bigger. Besides, once he takes over your market 2/3s of you will be the listeners who call in and say “I just wanted to say I HATED your show when it started, and now I can’t get enough of you! I listen in the morning, at night, all day at work yatta yatta” TODAY is a GOOD day, (shout-out) no need to rain the comments section with negativity.
Let’s all just take a big gulp of green juice and start #pimpinjoy
Golddust
May 20, 2015 @ 1:15 am
Somehow I doubt that 2/3 of the listeners have done an about face on his show. If they had, my local radio station wouldn’t be playing Bobby Bones commercials at least twice an hour, all day and evening long, including one played over and over again where he implores people to give him a try. It’s gotten to where I change the station more for hearing his name and/or voice than I do for songs I don’t like, and that’s saying a LOT! Sure wish they pushed the local DJs instead of someone who talks about “pimpin’ joy” out of one side of his mouth but then does way too much to negate the good he does out of the other side.
Sophie
May 21, 2015 @ 4:09 pm
This ACCIDENT aside, the guy brings way more joy than negativity. All the negative you hear about him is bullshit. Someone who will spend entire weekends on the road, donating ALL of the money made to charities, is not walking around in his spare time working doubly as hard to negate all of the good. There is LITERALLY not enough time in the day for him to do enough bad that it outweighs the good…. But hey, I don’t know your life, maybe you think building kitchens for orphanages, and raising money for St. Jude, and promoting positivity is a bad thing, in which case, you would definitely be right.
Golddust
May 21, 2015 @ 7:55 pm
Someone who promotes his staff drinking shot after shot after shot on air, on a morning show no less, that teenagers are no doubt listening to, wouldn’t call that positive. Someone who thinks it’s a good thing that a new staff member snorts salt, drinks a shot and squirts lime? juice in her eye, wouldn’t call that positive. Again, teenagers are listening. Oh, wow, Bobby Bones thinks it’s cool to do this, let me try it. Or ah, they only drank X shots, let me drink X more. After all, the guys on the radio show think it’s cool.
You’re right, you don’t know my life or the hundreds of hours I’ve volunteered or the thousands of dollars I’ve helped raise for different charities, but that’s because I do it because it’s in my blood, not because I need to receive kudos for it. But that’s just me. There *is* a way to negate the good you do. Not up to me to judge how things will wash out in the end. Glad you like him. Having listened to his shows several times trying my hardest to give him a chance, I’d have to say I have no intention of listening to his shows any longer and he’s no one I’d ever have any desire to meet. You can have my spot in line.
Trigger
May 21, 2015 @ 9:40 pm
I think there’s a very dangerous trend in in popular culture where you can be the generator of all sorts of malevolent stuff, yet since you give to charity, that absolves you of all of your sins in the public eye. I see this done with Bobby Bones all the time, and I saw this with a lot of Bret Michaels fans recently. I don’t want to take anything away from the good work people do for charity, but no amount of charity work will turn a bad song good, or make it right that a morning show played EMS signals that caused sheer panic in multiple major metropolitan areas in the United States. What the Bobby Bones Show did was a violation of federal law, and should have been punished. Pimp Joy all you want, it doesn’t change that.
Hawkeye
May 19, 2015 @ 5:42 pm
What the idiot deserves
Off topic
Hey Trigg, you oughta give the band NEEDTOBREATHE a try
They are technically classified as Christian Rock but you can definitely hear many southern influenes in their music
You might wanna give their lastest album Rivers in the Wasteland a try, even though they have a lot more good songs that are not on that album.
My personal favorite songs include Brother, Multiplyed, Washed by the Water, Girl Named Tennessee, Hurricane, and The Outsiders
NPC
May 19, 2015 @ 6:55 pm
The EAS signal was actually an improvement over his usual drivel… can Bobby Bones’s salary go towards paying the FCC every morning?
Chris
May 19, 2015 @ 9:38 pm
Radio should be fined $100 million for playing bad fake country music and sexism against female artists. Wouldn’t this be a test of the emergency brocast system? Did Bobby know the video has the EAS tones? Doesn’t he have an engineer in the studio who’s supposed to know the rules? Another marketing stunt like those billboards?
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/anti-bobby-bones-billboards-spring-up-in-nashville
Banner
May 19, 2015 @ 10:04 pm
thats really to bad, Trigger. I know how big of a fan of the show you are. Hope you didn’t lose too much faith in the bonester for pulling this boner.
Trigger
May 19, 2015 @ 11:13 pm
Apparently Bobby Bones or one of his producers is a big fan of Saving Country Music. On this morning’s show, they had an entire segment on Clay Walker and Will Hoge’s comments on rock stars going country.
Dogit
May 20, 2015 @ 6:36 am
Trigg,
That means you are doing something right!
Banner
May 20, 2015 @ 6:38 am
too funny
Daniel
May 20, 2015 @ 11:40 am
Boo hoo. Bobby played an emergency tone. Get a life.
Ryan
May 22, 2015 @ 5:29 pm
I can’t believe they replaced Gerry House with this prick.
mj
May 24, 2015 @ 5:41 pm
I’ve heard this bobby bones show a few times on my way to work. Had no idea it was such a big show. Didn’t seem like he was a very talented jock, but then again most country radio DJs are awful.
TrueBonesFan
June 2, 2016 @ 6:27 pm
He is entertaining and his crew make listeners laugh. I hope you’re not going to say rock/pop Dj’s are any better? My opinion is that they suck…….
TrueBonesFan
May 21, 2016 @ 4:01 am
I think all you supposed do-gooders who never make mistakes and always say the politically correct things should not be judging anybody else because I’m sure you have all screwed up in the past, just not on as big a level as his mistake was. If you don’t like what he says or what he and his team stands for then shut up and change the station. I know this was from a year ago but I just read about this in his book and happened upon this page. You should try to do all he does including getting up at 3am and working constantly on several different things at once. Opinions are like a$$#@/?$, everybody has one.
Jack Williams
May 21, 2016 @ 8:07 am
Deep, original comment.
TrueBonesFan
June 2, 2016 @ 6:31 pm
I hope you never have to write a term paper for anything. Your knowledge of words and expressionism are about at the level of my 12 year old.
Casey198
June 2, 2016 @ 7:24 pm
Knowledge of expressionism? As in the modernist art movement relating to poetry and painting, originating in Germany in the early 20th century?
Nice try, pal. 😉
Jack Williams
June 2, 2016 @ 8:17 pm
Oh, man. You beat me to it. 😉 In the future, perhaps that 12 year old should proofread all comments before Mommy/Daddy posts on the internet.
LoveTBBS
May 24, 2016 @ 9:45 pm
I came here from his book too lol honestly I don’t see why they were acting like he personally offended them. What he did wasn’t the smartest thing to do but come on, there are a lot of more important things people should be mad over.
TrueBonesFan
June 2, 2016 @ 6:24 pm
Sorry I got off topic with my reply to ‘boy wonders’ comment above but when we have people blowing up buildings and hijacking planes I think BB’s mistake was pretty minor.
Casey198
June 2, 2016 @ 7:31 pm
This is called a fallacy, my friend. A red herring, I believe: “A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. The basic idea is to “win” an argument by leading attention away from the argument and to another topic. This sort of “reasoning” has the following form:
Topic A is under discussion.
Topic B is introduced under the guise of being relevant to topic A (when topic B is actually not relevant to topic A).
Topic A is abandoned.” Again, nice try. Are you sure you aren’t Mr. Bones himself? 😉
Jack Williams
June 2, 2016 @ 8:25 pm
Oh God, that is so pathetic. Please get lost.
Barb
June 11, 2016 @ 1:03 pm
Bobby Bones you are a great guy and very refreshing to hear every morning on my way to work. Keep it up Bobby! I love your sidekicks, what you do, and what you stand for.
marc Stewy
October 11, 2017 @ 9:27 pm
I came here from the book and knew NOTHING about him or his show prior to reading it. A lot of you have your panties/ boxers in a wad over nothing. With the problems in the middle east and N Korea going on I’m surprised people are so narrow minded that they even discuss things like this. It’s a non issue. When I hear those tones all I do is hit mute. In my lifetime of 55 years there has never been anything I’ve heard following the tones but weather alerts and such. All of you, pro and con, need a xanax.