Xander's Random Audio Shite

Period Correct 1997 EAS Recreation: Train Derailment Prompting Evacuation

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by

KanawhaCountyWX
in

I did my best to make this mockup as period correct as I could. The TTS engine is the National Weather Service variant of DECtalk, I used a period correct EAS encoder, and I even found a station ID from a station in the area from that time online.

Admittedly, this alert would have likely been read out by a human voice, DECtalk wasn’t more common at NWS until around 1999, but this still works.

I also dubbed the alert to a random tape of mine using a Sony CFD-S70 boombox, and turns out the tape wasn’t in the bestt shape.

The alert text is taken verbatum from an alert I found on IEMbot: https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=CEMCRW&e=199706080415

Note that this is so early into the lifespan of the EAS that it still says "BULLETIN – EBS ACTIVATION REQUESTED" instead of "BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED." This was because the Emergency Alert System had only existed for six months when this alert was issued.

Also a fun guessing game: the station ID didn’t originally play into "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough." There’s a split second of the song it originally played into. If you can figure out what song it originally played into, you will receive a virtual box of cookies.

Comments

11 responses to “Period Correct 1997 EAS Recreation: Train Derailment Prompting Evacuation”

  1. KanawhaCountyWX Avatar
    KanawhaCountyWX

    NWS DECtalk was compiled with a different set of speech dictionaries, and because of that has a fairly distinct sound. I’ll have to post some comparisons.

    Reply
  2. zlunglrg Avatar
    zlunglrg

    and from the looks of it, that station is a sports station, they don’t do oldys anymore,

    Reply
  3. zlunglrg Avatar
    zlunglrg

    the nws version has more abreviations relatingto weather, and maybe more dictionary fixes

    Reply
  4. EugeniuszPompiusz Avatar
    EugeniuszPompiusz

    What’s the difference between Noaa version of Dectalk and old good acces32 bundled with WIndow-Eyes and or Jaws 4X?

    Reply
  5. KanawhaCountyWX Avatar
    KanawhaCountyWX

    Nope, I’ll tell ya. It was Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, you can hear a split second of the first note of the opening bass riff before I cut the audio over.

    Reply
  6. zlunglrg Avatar
    zlunglrg

    big girls don’t cry bby franky vally?

    Reply
  7. KanawhaCountyWX Avatar
    KanawhaCountyWX

    Well, I didn’t explain this well. The original ID recording I found online, it didn’t play Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, it originally played a different song. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to determine the other song that it originally played, you can hear it for a split second.

    Reply
  8. zlunglrg Avatar
    zlunglrg

    aint no mountain high enough, but I like my oldys music, and I could defenately tell you recorded it onto a tape

    Reply
  9. Landon205 Avatar
    Landon205

    I don’t know. I was just goin wit my gut.

    Reply
  10. KanawhaCountyWX Avatar
    KanawhaCountyWX

    Well yes, but no. At the end of the station ID, you can briefly hear a snipit of the song they played after the ID, it’s very brief. That’s what I’m wondering if anyone else can identify. I know it, this is just a fun challenge.

    Reply
  11. Landon205 Avatar
    Landon205

    Oh I know this. It was Jutey Blue eyes.

    Reply

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