dale armitage

I jam with this kinda stuff, especially vintage EBS and "scary logos" (related but different topic) EBS is legitimate analog horror - and if you didn't grow up hearing those "this is a test" messages from the radio, you can't imagine the unease that fills adults of a certain age on hearing it, especially if they grew up during the Cold War with constant looming fear of the atomic bomb underlying the 80's. Additionally, the EBS always manages to somehow find the most unsettling announcers to read out the stock phrasing. And the tone itself is PAINFUL to the ear (on purpose). Also not fun to think about: The decentralization of everyone's personal infospheres means that such a system like this (meant to activate people's televisions and drive them to local radio stations for information) is now no longer workable; if a major incident actually occurred, while the Internet spreads word fast, it's not nearly the same thing, and there are now next to NO local sources to respond to major incidents even if you try to find them. Civil defense, the concept of people being able to work together to respond to a crisis, is deeply broken in the infrastructure of America. By way of illustration: when 9/11 happened, I heard about it live on CNN and then on the radio on the way to work, and then confusion followed massively throughout the day. Today? I don't know how we would quickly and effectively spread word to the country at large, especially to non-Internet users.

True fans know the story. :D