The first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will take place at 1 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday. The test serves to assess the reliability and usefulness of the EAS as a public alert mechanism.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are using the results of the nationwide test to assess the effectiveness of the public alert mechanism. The cable providers of the Urbana Public Television signal (Comcast and AT&T) will participate in the past. The test will resemble the regular weekly and month EAS tests on the radio and TV and will last three minutes.