It is inaccurate though. You would rather not risk sending wrong information to people.
We still always get the local ads on the ABC - e.g. Belinda King for Breakfast from 5:30am weekdays etc… and on Saturday nights I have to remember to ask it to play ABC Radio Hobart instead of Northern Tasmania so I can get Nightlife instead of Saturday Night Country so there is some levels of flexibility and when it comes to major life threatening floods and fires etc… there should be at least some mention even giving some generalised locations and telling people where to check for further information or the numbers to call. I’m sure people would understand a minute or two every so often as they’d expect the same in their own situation. They heavily promote the fact they are meant to be the emergency broadcaster.
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I think we should implement a mobile warning system similar to what is already in place in New Zealand, North America and most of Europe.
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We have those. When I arrived in Latrobe on Thursday night just after the emergency declaration, everyone in the region was receiving the following message - I got it to both my work and personal phone and another one a couple of hours later. Note they also mention to listen to ABC Local Radio!
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ABC local radio across Victoria thankfully live and local this morning with Warwick Long hosting. Not wall to wall official emergency broadcasts but all flood related coverage from around the state.
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Via @Brad1 in the RDS thread - KLFM Bendigo using RDS to push out emergency alerts
On another note: has anyone observed the SEWS been used in NSW or Tasmania during this flooding event? I haven’t in Victoria, which is particularly odd given it is rather ubiquitous in bushfire season.
SEWS may be broadcast immediately before an emergency warning or group of warnings for an emergency, or threat of an emergency, including:
- major fires
- major floods
- major severe storms and their associated storm surges
- earthquakes
- chemical hazards and any associated major pollution
- any other significant emergency
Then again, with as many as 100 warnings across the state at one time - including multiple warnings within a broadcast area - perhaps it was at risk of being overused and therefore less effective?
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I thought it was only used for immediate evacuation events only for floods
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SCA stations have been simulcasting in Shepparton since midday, and are using the SEWS in their updates. Might be the ABC choosing to be more conservative?
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It’s not the same thing. To a phone it just looks like a normal text.
Unless you add that number as a contact and change some settings it won’t alert you if you have your phone on do not disturb or focus mode.
Meanwhile both Apple (About emergency and government alerts on iPhone – Apple Support (AU)) and Android (Get help during an emergency with your Android phone - Android Help) have emergency alerts built in already.
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Leyroy Brown did this arvo from Bendigo as GV studios flooded. Rohin on now, assuming from Albury
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I have no idea why this functionality isn’t being used properly in Australia.
It is used in the USA, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and a whole host of other countries, yet we are using this far inferior +61 444 444 444 SMS service instead.
I was in Townsville during the floods in 2018 and the SMS service was used and there were heaps of people posting on social media warning others, believing these messages were spam and not actually real alerts when they came out.
Then we had people receiving messages from actual spammers using spoofed numbers, something like +61 488 444 444, giving out fake alerts which were wrong. I received one saying evacuate immediately as my suburb would be 5 metres underwater. It was fake and created panic, but the number looked real to many people.
People couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.
Not to mention the geo-targeting not working properly. Heaps of people in flood-affected suburbs didn’t get any messages, while others in non-flood-affected suburbs were inundated with these messages (pun not intended).
I’ve lived in Canberra for 2 years now, and received one of these +61 444 444 444 messages for an area in QLD last year that I hadn’t been in for 2 years, since I left.
The current system is ridiculous and needs to be replaced with the proper mobile alerts.
You just have to see the tweet below to see how bad the current system is, when NSW Police have to tell people that they aren’t fake.
https://twitter.com/nswpolice/status/1440494535646199808?lang=en
The above facebook post also generated some interesting comments from the public too:
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Extremely bad flooding as SCA/3SR are adjacent to the original GMV 6 TV studio site. To consider the sole commercial TV and radio station may have been off air during such a flood must’ve been quite a concern for those at the stations.
Very unusual for studios to be in flood prone locations. Even 2MG next to TX in floodplain is built above usual flood level.
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i just got sick of every missing child and stupid missing person alert… so I blocked it… gets annoying
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Never seen it used in Victoria
Hit 96.9 and 95.3 MMM still doing a joint broadcast from what appeared 6:00am to midnight. They seem to have dropped the Hit Format and playing MMM music incl adds. Interesting listen. Thoughts go out to all the locals effected by the floods
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I think Len Johns did a good job today on 3SH, his early morning shift a bit light on but was fully in the groove full of information for the afternoon. He has also pre recorded some warnings with a joint 3SH Mixxfm your emergency radio stations.
2QN on the other seemed poor in the afternoon, a young female voice stumbling over herself for the warning while Damo seemed to just carry on with little mention of it for the short little time I listened.
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I streamed Edge this morning to see if they had gone local for breakfast and that haven’t. Credit to SCA, disappointing ACE haven’t
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Very high flood throughout the Ovens and King Valley & in Wangaratta itself yet little if no coverage from 3NE/Edge? Very poor if true.
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I believe Now in Moree has been live and local all day.
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