Bobby Bones Show Triggers Emergency White House Message
UPDATE (10-27): YouTube Video Played on The Bobby Bones Show caused EAS Message. READ MORE.
Confusion and even panic gripped thousands of television viewers in Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Michigan this morning (10-24) when they received an “Emergency Action Notification” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA, warning viewers to wait for further information from The White House on an active emergency. And apparently The Bobby Bones Show, iHeartMedia’s flagship Top 40 country radio show with a controversial host, was behind the mishap.
“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, as the warning forced televisions of U-Verse subscribers to tune to one specific channel and wouldn’t allow it to be changed.
After investigations by both AT&T and FEMA, it was determined that a nationally-syndicated radio show was the culprit in the accidental emergency message being sent out, and it eventually was traced it back to WSIX in Nashville, the flagship of The Bobby Bones Show which was on the air at the time the alert was relayed.
“This morning, there was an inappropriate playing of the national emergency alert notification tones on a syndicated radio broadcast,” FEMA spokesperson Rafael Lemaitre said in a statement. “There is not a national emergency. Today’s broadcast triggered alert notification in states where the alert has been played…FEMA and the FCC are currently working with broadcasters to determine the full scope of the situation.”
Tennessee Association of Broadcasters President Whit Adamson said in a statement, “We have discovered that this audio tone origination and possibly others was sent from WSIX-FM studios during the Bobby Bones Show in Nashville this morning and was evidently picked up by the Premiere Network program syndication in other markets.”
WSIX, and iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) have not commented on the situation, and Bobby Bones, who has been traveling today for a performance in Albuquerque, NM, has not addressed the incident.
JacobB
October 24, 2014 @ 5:26 pm
People don’t like this guy. Doing stupid stuff like this won’t make it better. Why do something stupid like that?
Trigger
October 24, 2014 @ 5:57 pm
In fairness, we do not know yet if this was done on purpose as part of some stunt or joke, inadvertently but nonetheless negligently, or completely on accident and The Bobby Bones Show just happened to be on the air when it happened. My guess is eventually we will find this out. What we do know is if it was done purposely or negligently, FEMA and the FCC don’t mess around, and there will be consequences.
JC Eldredge
October 24, 2014 @ 5:42 pm
Was it an accident or a very, very stupid joke? If it was done on purpose he should be, at the very least, given a hefty fine, if not worse.
Trigger
October 24, 2014 @ 6:04 pm
We don’t know yet, but with federal agencies investigating, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.
I can’t help to think if I was at home and saw this message pop up, being told to wait for The White House and not use my phone what my reaction would be especially in this day and age. And then hear it all traces back to Bobby Bones.
I guess it’s good to know that an alert system like this exists.
JC Eldredge
October 25, 2014 @ 11:35 am
If you have a newer cell phone they are pre programmed with different levels of emergency alerts. The only one you can’t turn off is the Presidential Emergency tone.
Meaghan
October 24, 2014 @ 5:43 pm
If it turns out this was done “accidentally on purpose” as some PR stunt I hope there are consequences.
Mike W
October 24, 2014 @ 6:02 pm
If it comes out that he or someone on his team did this on purpose, he should be fined and suspended. Considering the overall mood of the Country right now if this was a joke, he should be punished and possible fired. I know that will never happen though since Bobby Bones is seen as some sort of “savior” to iHeartMedia.
Troy Turner
October 24, 2014 @ 6:03 pm
Either way, heads will roll. Let us hope Bobby Bones’s will be the first head on the chopping block. One can only hope..
Eric C.
October 24, 2014 @ 7:59 pm
Those tones are ONLY to be used in a national emergency (ie. invasion, nuclear attack, etc.) because they trigger the alert (hence the notice that the President would be speaking), and I’m pretty sure they tell their hosts never to play the tone for that reason. It is inexcusable to ever play that tone on air. If they had any guts they’d fire him on the spot for that.
Trigger
October 24, 2014 @ 8:37 pm
Interesting that FEMA called it an “inappropriate playing” and not a “accidental playing” or something else.
Bear
October 25, 2014 @ 12:08 am
Bobby, Bobby, Bobby… Leave this kind of stuff to Orson Welles… tsk, tsk, tsk… (assuming he did it)
Daniel
October 25, 2014 @ 3:15 am
Originally from northern CA, I moved to Albuquerque about 2 years ago and this joke of a man was the very first voice I heard on the radio and at that very moment I knew I would dislike this man and his childish radio show. Who woulda known it would’ve escalated into this lol.
Ashton
October 25, 2014 @ 6:58 am
I fully expected this to have the “satire” tag at the bottom.
Lil Dale
October 25, 2014 @ 12:22 pm
at leest bobby bones got won over on that bum Obuma so hes ok n my book. but if hes tyed to al kata n isis I will go over to nashville n kick his butt my self. I aint puttin up with that. or may be the fbi n cia will shut his showdown? aww well hell I dont no. I still thank hes doin a good job n workin hard. Hope evrywon out there has a good weak end. ROLE TIDE!
Trin
October 26, 2014 @ 12:03 am
Clearly the sheeple are confused about the tactics of the US Government.
Phil
October 26, 2014 @ 3:53 am
A couple of days ago, I was watching this documentary called “Supermensh”. One of the things it went over was how Shep Gordon promoted Alice Cooper early on. There was a segment where Alice was going to play in England for the first time. Shep paid to had a billboard van break down in some busy high profile section of downtown London causing such a problem that it became a news story. The giant billboard on the van was of a nude Alice Cooper with a snake being the only thing covering up his genitals. That one stunt was able to fill a stadium for Alice Cooper who was still new and unknown in London at the time. There are so many examples like this the documentary went over. My eyes were opened up a bit. There’s also a pretty interesting story on how Shep Gordon was able to make Anne Murray famous.
I would very easily believe a narcissist like Bobby Bones would trigger the emergency system on purpose for attention or publicity. I don’t know if he did do it but I wouldn’t put it past him. In some ways he’s like a bad and disfunctional copy of Shep Gordon.
Also, I’m barely (I mean barely) hanging on to still being able to watch the TV Show “Nashvile”. Seeing Bobby Bones shown on it a couple of episodes back was really hard to take (and man was he stiff like a deer in the headlights).
Mike
October 26, 2014 @ 6:26 am
I want everyone to know, this explanation is NOT possible. This is not a normal EAS message (thunderstorm warning, amber alert, ect.). This was an EAN, Emergency Alert Notification. It can ONLY be activated by the president or his delegate. In the header of this alert (it is in some of the screenshots online) there are codes showing PEP. This means primary entry point. That means it came from the WH. I have posted this on one other website—–where I was attacked. EAS systems and event codes have been a hobby of mine for 20 years , they are radio related. I don’t expect people to take my word for it, the information I stated can be found online.
Trigger
October 26, 2014 @ 9:38 am
My question would be though, why did it only go to specific UVerse subscribers only in specific locations, instead of everyone like it is supposed to? That would seem to allude that maybe it was technical a glitch in the system that could have been stimulated accidentally or otherwise by The Bobby Bones Show. I’m just wondering because I’m much more of a novice on these matters than most.
mike
October 26, 2014 @ 12:18 pm
That’s actually the “million dollar” question. The system is set up so that this scenario can not happen. I wish the national media would ask for a response from the WH. There have been (rarely) false alerts in the past. But never an EAN, for the reasons I stated above, only the president or his delegate can initiate one. This goes to a handful of PEP (primary entry point) media outlets (such as ATT) , who then disseminate it to all the outlets they are assigned. They have no control over this—–they are only the relaying party. I suspect the reason so many people had this message for so long, is that an EAT (Emergency Action Termination), must be sent for normal programming to resume. And again this must be initiated just like an EAN. So the encoders/decoders were probably waiting for this message.
Trigger
October 26, 2014 @ 2:48 pm
I suspect we may have more information on this story on Monday. Apparently there were Federal agents swarming all over WSIX in Nashville on Friday, and I suspect if this story hadn’t broke on Friday afternoon just as most media outlets are wrapping up operations for the week, it would have been a bigger story. Since The Bobby Bones Show is so widely distributed across the country, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are used as a PEP on radio. You’re right, this story has multiple tentacles that need to be resolved, especially since it could signal a flaw in the way information is distributed in a true emergency.
Mike
October 26, 2014 @ 7:04 am
Anybody from this site want to let me know why me comment was deleted?
Trigger
October 26, 2014 @ 8:34 am
Your comment wasn’t deleted, it was awaiting moderation.
mike
October 26, 2014 @ 8:52 am
Thank you for the reply, I actually apologized in the next post.
Lucy
October 26, 2014 @ 3:44 pm
Wow, this is a strange story. I didn’t know that there was an automatic system based on tones, no less.
Has anyone checked on Alex Jones, or similar, to see if elaborate conspiracy theories about this incident have been crafted?
Mike
October 26, 2014 @ 4:48 pm
Alex and the usual sites all have threads about it. Some of the theories, might not be so far off.
Mike
October 26, 2014 @ 4:43 pm
Your last sentence says it all, whatever happened needs to be addressed , and fixed. What worries me, is will anyone take a real message seriously now? Based on many of the comments I have seen all over the Internet , I don’t think they will. Most people were upset they could not see their shows. On a side note , I have to confess I had no idea who Bobby Bones was—— I ended up here in a roundabout way. I’m actually a heavy metal guy!
Mike
October 26, 2014 @ 4:45 pm
Oops, last comment was meant as a reply to Trigger.
Scott Anthony
October 27, 2014 @ 7:12 am
We are part of the media, and have asked BOTH the White House and the FCC as to how such an event could occur. As of this date, we have not received a valid response (or any response at all). Normally, we have good relations with Government Agencies and they do respond to our questions. The fact that they are all remaining silent, does point to a significant problem with the integrity of the EAN system.
Mike
October 27, 2014 @ 11:59 am
To me the lack of a response or reply from the government , is the most troubling part of the story.
Scott Anthony
October 27, 2014 @ 4:33 pm
I completely agree. We have attempted since 10/24/14 to get a reply. None as of this time…. not a good thing. It was actually a very simple question we asked.
Mike
October 28, 2014 @ 8:40 am
I would like someone from the FCC or FEMA , to explain how the sound from a YouTube video was picked up by an open mic. and triggered this EAN. In technical terms, not everyone is as dumb as they think.
Charlie
October 28, 2014 @ 9:01 am
Don’t close that loophole just yet. First, I want to get Lil Dale to go on the BB show, transmit the Brown Noise signal, and make all his listeners shit their pants.
JDK
October 29, 2014 @ 10:57 am
If this were you or I we would be charged with “Inducing Panic” or somewhere along those lines. Why not Bobby Bones? This guy (is he?!) knows nothing about country music. This would be like Reba hosting a Rap syndicated show. With all of the talented country DJ’s that are still employed in this country …and the dozens that have been laid off… this is what they could find?