that horrible BEEP

[Paul Anderson]

On Jan 19, 2008, at 11:10 AM, Cohasset / Hippisley wrote:

> An "Alert" consisted of a series of equally spaced beeps that were  
> intended to alert station personnel that something important was  
> about to come across the network feed.

How would station personnel hear this beep?  Would someone be expected  
to monitor the network feed at all times?

ABC radio always had a tone at five seconds before a newscast started.

They also had a tone that would activate an optional alarm at the  
station.  This was used for bulletins or special reports.  I worked at  
two stations that carried ABC news but neither one had the optional  
alarm that would sound when the network sent the special tone.  I  
wonder if they still have such a thing.

Paul