It appears that someone in the Illinois Emergency Management agency was attempting to test some new EAS equipment yesterday and instead sent out a real alert. That activated the emergency alert takeover of numerous broadcast stations about 7:45 am (CT), with lead station WGN-AM Chicago feeding the system. But there was no emergency news to feed.
"This is Spike at WGN," morning man Spike O'Dell said on the air after the station had gone silent for more than two minutes. "I have no idea how many other radio stations are listening to us right now. We are trying to figure out what's going on," he told listeners.
Stations returned to regular programming and officials are still trying to figure out how the mistake occurred.
