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Re:Norway switches off FM radio, but a station is defying go... by vidarh on Friday December 15, 2017 @01:27PM (#15933886)
Norway has a nationwide network of warning sirens that was built out during the cold war and that is tested regularly that could be used to convey a wider range of critical messages without the need for a radio receiver (during my childhood we heard these very regularly, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the test frequency was reduced significantly and now they're only tested twice a year).

However with the rise of the internet and decline of the printed phone book, which used to be distributed to absolutely every household, and that listed the (small) set of warning patterns the sirens would use (that included e.g. warning about air raids), they've now reduced it to only one signal to avoid depending on people to remember them:

"Important message - listen to radio"

...

I wonder how exactly they'll resolve that with a diminishing proportion of the population having "radio" that's independent of internet access being up.

Re:Norway switches off FM radio, but a station is defying go... by snom380 on Friday December 15, 2017 @07:01PM (#15936386)
..and guess how this system is activated? Using traditional FM (some form of RDS, I think). Which is why not all the transmitters have been turned off yet.
Re:Norway switches off FM radio, but a station is defying go... by soared on Friday December 15, 2017 @05:11PM (#15935672)
I've only realized now how odd this is: Boulder, co is one of the safest places in the United States (crime and natural disasters), but they test the super loud warning system every monday during the summer.
Re:Norway switches off FM radio, but a station is defying go... by ceejayoz on Saturday December 16, 2017 @12:59AM (#15938036)
These days they're mostly used to warn about tornadoes, which Colorado ranks #9 in the nation for.