Conelrad in Boston area

[Sid Schweiger]

>>This is the same government that had me shut dowm WMUR-TV one
Saturday
morning when this came over the AP wire

THIS IS NOT A TEST. THIS IS AN ACTUAL EMERGENCY. THE CONTINENTAL
UNITED STATES IS UNDER ATTACK BY A FORIEGN POWER. REPEAT. THIS IS NOT
A TEST THIS IS AN ACTUAL EMERGENCY

Then the password was a match   YIKES

Every Sat morning and Sunday night they would run the test at the
exact same time.

I think WMUR and WRKO were the only stations that actually "complied"
in this area.<<

I have a copy of the UPI teletype messages from that
morning...Saturday, February 20th, 1971.  Yes, the weekly wire-services
EBS test was done at the same time every week, 9:33 AM on Saturday.  It
was run by an operator at NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs.  A
paper-punch tape was taken off a shelf, threaded into a teletype
machine, and a button pressed to interrupt the wire services and
transmit the test.

On this particular Saturday morning, according to someone on another
remailer I subscribe to who knew the people involved, the operator had
been to a party the night before, and grabbed the wrong tape.

The comical part of this whole fiasco (if any of it can be called
comical) was that there were separate authenticator words for the
beginning and the ending of the alerts (if you old-timers have ever
opened the dreaded Red Envelope, you know what I'm referring to).  They
tried to cancel the alert the first time using the same authenticator
word as for the beginning of the alert.  They got it right the second
time.

This is, however, an entirely separate issue from that of what
materials are classified by the government.  Government's tendency is to
classify too much, not too little.



Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
WAAF - WEEI AM/FM - WKAF
WMKK - WRKO - WVEI AM/FM
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Boston MA  02135-2040
Phone: 617-779-5369
Fax: 617-779-5379
E-Mail: sid@wrko.com