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Emergency Action Notification

National activation of the Emergency Alert System

A National Emergency Message (SAME code: EAN), previously known as an Emergency Action Notification (1971 - circa 2022), is the national activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) used to alert the residents of the United States of a national or global emergency such as a nuclear war or any other mass casualty situation. This alert can only be activated by the president of the United States or a designated representative thereof, such as the vice president. The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) also carried the Emergency Action Notification.² Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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The story

The term "Emergency Action Notification" was created when the Emergency Broadcast System went into place in 1963. Before the mid-1970s, this was the only non-test activation permitted (the same rule also applied to the earlier CONELRAD system). The EAN signifies a national emergency, as the wording shows. The Office of Civil Defense originally created the term for the national emergency notification enactment. FEMA soon took over after its creation, which further lead to the development of the modern Emergency Alert System.

In its multi-decade history, however, the Emergency Alert System's EAN code has only been formally activated once: a test in 2011. The alert ensured all Primary Entry Points (PEPs) were to receive the EAN and properly send the alert, and that all stations monitoring the PEP relayed properly. The test ended up being notoriously inaudible, with other EAS units audible in the background of the original test audio. Since this alert, all national tests have been under the NPT (Nationwide Test of the Emergency Alert System, formerly known as National Periodic Test) SAME code, beginning in 2016.

In 2022, the FCC revised the Emergency Action Notification code to read "National Emergency Message." This change, along with many other revisions to the Emergency Alert System, was made to "improve the clarity and accessibility of alerts."

From Wikipedia’s article on National Emergency Message, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Products and brands

Operation

National Emergency Messages are treated the same as any other message transmitted over the Emergency Alert System, except that stations are required to relay them. When a message is received, the receiver is to open an audio channel to the originating source until the End of Message (EOM) tones are received. After the EOM is received, stations will return to normal programming in order to broadcast immediate news coverage of the event.

Formerly, stations would not resume broadcast until an Emergency Action Termination (SAME code: EAT) was issued.

Past operation

Unlike other messages, the EAN was not the alert itself, but rather a notice that the activation is beginning. After the End of Message (EOM) tones were sent, normal programming did not resume. Instead, most stations were to broadcast emergency information in a specific priority order. Messages from the President are always broadcast first. Next comes local messages, statewide and regional messages, and finally national messages not originating from the President. When an EAN was initially received, and during any time a new message was not available, an FCC mandated standby script was used (and repeated). Other stations, which held special permission from the FCC, would sign off until the end of the EAN.

Normal programming would not continue until the transmission of an Emergency Action Termination message (SAME code: EAT).