A nationwide emergency alert test will hit TVs and radios Nov. 17 around 2:20 p.m. ET

Television and radio audiences across the country are due for about a minute of test tones and on-screen text at roughly 2:20 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 17. The message is built to say, in its own words, that it is only a test and that no action is required by the public.

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Washington last ran an exercise of this size on Oct. 4, 2023, and federal law calls for one at least once every three years, which makes the Nov. 17 test the first nationwide run in three years. Unlike that 2023 round, this one is not expected to reach cell phones.

The script and the screens that carry it

FEMA’s weekly preparedness bulletin lists the exercise as a nationwide Emergency Alert System test at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET on Nov. 17. FEMA runs it together with the Federal Communications Commission, and the goal is to check how broadcasters and other providers receive the national message and relay it onward. The text opens by identifying itself as a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and states a 2:20 to 2:50 ET window for the test period. Depending on the outlet and the equipment, the message can arrive as audio, as text across the screen, or as both, and normal programming resumes afterward.

FEMA and the FCC first set the date in a Sept. 16 announcement, and the commission’s matching public notice, DA 26-989 went out the same day.

Earlier rounds show why the exercise exists. Wikipedia’s history of the national periodic test records that the first nationwide run, on Nov. 9, 2011, found only about half of participants receiving the alert through the federal system, with equipment configuration errors blamed for failures to receive or retransmit. The 2023 round started just before 2:20 p.m. ET and sent an alert over TV and radio plus a wireless alert to all cell phones, and the page lists no problems for it. The same page notes that tests expected in 2024 and fall 2025 were cancelled, so the 2026 date follows a longer gap than the three-year rule alone suggests.

Broadcasters’ paperwork: Form One, Form Two, Form Three

Behind the one-minute message sits a reporting chain for stations. Law firm Wiley’s summary of the FCC notice says participants’ annual Form One filing through the commission’s EAS Test Reporting System was due on Oct. 30, 2026. Form Two, the day-of-test report, is due by 2:20 p.m. ET on Nov. 19, and Form Three, with detailed post-test data, is due Jan. 4, 2027. A rescheduled test would move those to Dec. 5, 2026 and Jan. 18, 2027, and the firm lists Dec. 3, 2026 as the backup date if conditions force a postponement. Filing happens through the FCC’s EAS Test Reporting System.

TV Technology’s account of FEMA’s expectations adds that the alert goes out through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System under the Nationwide Test of the EAS event code, as a message in English and Spanish. Stations are urged to check their monitoring sources, connectivity, filters, software and audio levels beforehand, to have an engineer or operator watch the test live where staffing allows, and to review recorded audio afterward. The report names Al Kenyon, FEMA’s IPAWS customer support branch chief, and Jeff Hugabonne, chair of the Connecticut State Emergency Communications Committee, as sources for that guidance.

Phones stay quiet, while the same bulletin carries a $400 million flood offer

The November exercise covers the broadcast system only, a design choice that separates it from the 2023 round with its phone alert. According to TV Technology, Wireless Emergency Alerts are not part of it, so cell phones are not expected to buzz, and the test should last about a minute. Anyone listening to a radio station or watching broadcast or cable television at 2:20 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 17 is the intended audience, and the Spanish-language version of the message is carried for stations that relay it in that language.

The same FEMA bulletin carries a separate item with a long runway: an Oct. 22 announcement of $400 million in Flood Mitigation Assistance funding to help communities reduce flood risk to buildings and structures. Applications stay open through Feb. 26, 2027, long after the test is over.

The bulletin dates from the week of Nov. 3, and the FCC’s reporting dates carry reschedule alternatives, so a postponement before Nov. 17 would change the plan. No postponement notice had surfaced in the sources reviewed, and the 2:20 p.m. ET start remains the time FEMA’s bulletin and the Wiley summary both give. Viewers who see the message should expect it to match the script quoted above, and stations that fail to relay it will show up in the Form Two and Form Three data that FEMA and the FCC collect afterward, which is the whole purpose of running a live test.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.