SiriusXM says it restored weekly Emergency Alert System testing on its promotional channel July 27, a development confirmed in Radio World’s October 27 reporting.
The distinction between those dates matters: the tests did not restart today. A company spokesperson supplied the July date after an earlier pause in retransmitting a technical partner’s weekly tests.
Radio World reports that SiriusXM now originates the weekly tests through its own system and continued carrying required monthly tests during the pause. The promotional, or “barker,” channel is used in a number of state alerting plans as an additional source for national messages.
One more path to check
The confirmation comes ahead of the nationwide EAS test scheduled for November 17. The FCC’s September 16 public notice identifies the planned test with FEMA.
For station engineers, the practical issue is whether their own assigned monitoring paths receive and record the expected tests. A supplier’s confirmation that transmission resumed is not evidence that every downstream station received it.
Newsrooms should also keep routine weekly testing distinct from the nationwide exercise when explaining alerts to listeners. This development concerns an existing distribution path; it does not announce an extension of EAS requirements to internet-only radio stations.