There is a piece of audio out there on the internet from the early 70’s when the old Emergency Broadcast System accidentally sent out an alert (not a test) on a Saturday morning.
The tape is of some poor announcer at WOWO radio in Ft. Wayne, Indiana having to break in and announce the alert, having absolutely no idea why it was sent. He proceed to very nervously vamp for 7 1/2 minutes, not knowing if Washington, DC had been destroyed or if the Russkies were about to come parachuting in to Northeast Indiana.
Finally he gets word that the alert was sent in error, to his great relief. I think the original idea of this system was to prevent THAT from ever happening again.
That being said, I still do not trust it in this government’s hands.
Yes, there was a screwup in that anecdote. Eliminating the notification system outright was not a viable alternative, as there was a comparable chance DC HAD been obliterated.
Government is like fire: dangerous, but beneficial in small controlled amounts. Congress has a Constitutional mandate to establish a system for calling out the militia, and this satisfies that. Yes EBS can be abused, but we're not going to chuck the military just because that can be abused too.
BTW: I'm skittish too.
Here everyone... enjoy the story McFrog sent and the actual broadcast...
http://io9.com/5645219/in-1971-world-war-iii-began-during-a-partridge-family-song