Every TV and Radio in America Gets Interrupted on November 17. Your Phone Stays Silent This Time.

Sometime around lunchtime on the West Coast and mid-afternoon on the East Coast next Tuesday, whatever you’re watching or listening to will cut out. You’ll hear a harsh, buzzing tone, then a voice telling you this is a test of the Emergency Alert System. About a minute later, your show comes back.

That’s the nationwide EAS test FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission have scheduled for Tuesday, November 17, 2026, and as UNILAD Tech reported, it will hit every participating TV and radio outlet in the country at the same moment. It’s the first national test of the system since October 2023, and there’s one big difference from last time: your phone isn’t part of it.

What time the test hits where you live

The alert goes out simultaneously across the country, so the local time depends on your time zone. Because the US is back on standard time in November, the conversion is straightforward.

Arizona doesn’t observe daylight saving time, but that doesn’t matter in November because the rest of the Mountain zone is on standard time too. Phoenix and Denver will get it at the same moment.

What you’ll actually see and hear

The test is sent in both English and Spanish. On TV, you’ll typically see a text crawl or a full-screen slate, and on radio you’ll hear the audio version. It starts with the familiar EAS attention tones, which are deliberately unpleasant so nobody can miss them. Then comes the message, which will read roughly like this:

The “14:20 to 14:50” part is the window the alert is technically valid for, not how long it lasts. The interruption itself should be about a minute. The FCC has also reminded stations that the visual text needs to match the audio, so people who are deaf or hard of hearing get the same information as everyone else.

One thing that surprises people every time: you won’t see it on Netflix, YouTube or any other on-demand app. The test rides on broadcast, cable and satellite TV and on AM, FM and satellite radio. If you’re streaming a show at 2:20, you’ll probably miss it entirely.

Why your phone is sitting this one out

The last national test in October 2023 had two parts. One went to TVs and radios through EAS, and the other pinged basically every compatible cell phone in the country through Wireless Emergency Alerts, or WEA. That second part is what made the 2023 test so memorable, with millions of phones screeching at once.

This time FEMA is testing only the broadcast side. Its FAQ notes that WEA was tested in 2023 and isn’t part of the 2026 test. That makes sense from a systems point of view: EAS relies on a chain of broadcast stations and satellite links that can only really be proven by running them end to end, while phone alerts go out through the carriers all the time for things like Amber Alerts and weather warnings.

It’s still a good moment to check that your own phone will get the real thing when it counts. Some people turn off emergency alerts after one too many Amber Alerts at 3 a.m. and forget they did it. Here’s how to check your phone’s emergency alert settings on both iPhone and Android.

How the alert actually travels

EAS is part of a bigger system called IPAWS, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, which FEMA runs. For a national test, FEMA sends the message two ways at once:

1. Over the internet. The alert goes out as a Common Alerting Protocol message, a standard digital format that stations’ EAS equipment can read directly.
2. Over the air. It’s also fed to a network of Primary Entry Point stations, a set of hardened radio stations across the country with backup power and fuel, built to stay on the air even if the internet and power grid don’t.

From there it works like a daisy chain. Stations monitor other stations, pick up the alert and pass it on, until it reaches every local TV channel, radio station and cable system. That’s exactly the part a nationwide test is designed to check. Every participating outlet has to file reports with the FCC afterward: a quick “did you get it” report within 48 hours, and a detailed one by January 4, 2027.

When alerts go wrong

The system is used thousands of times a year by states, local authorities and the National Weather Service, for things like tornado warnings, flash floods and chemical spills. Only the President can send a true national alert, and that has never happened outside a test. But the system’s history has a few moments that explain why regular testing matters:

• 2005, Connecticut: an operator meant to run a routine test and instead broadcast a statewide immediate evacuation order.
• 2013, Montana and Michigan: hackers got into poorly secured EAS equipment and aired a warning that “dead bodies” were rising from their graves.
• 2018, Hawaii: an employee sent a ballistic missile alert to phones across the state. It took 38 minutes for a correction to go out.

That last one is a reminder that alerts are only as good as the people and software behind them. It’s not just a US problem either. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s air alert app pushed 122 fake nuclear warnings in seven minutes after it was hacked.

Why broadcast alerts still matter in 2026

It’s easy to think TV and radio alerts are a relic now that everyone has a phone. But phones depend on cell towers, and cell towers depend on power. In a big outage, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio tuned to a local station can be the only thing still delivering information. That’s the whole reason Primary Entry Point stations have their own generators and fuel. We looked at that exact problem in detail when UK officials warned about what still works in a total “black sky” blackout.

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