The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Alert Ready national test this Thursday

bmaudioworks · May 3, 2026 10:07 am

It's Emergency Preparedness Week, and that means another test of Canada's National Public Alerting System is on the way. With the possible exception of Quebec, the test will take place in all provinces and territories this Wednesday, May 6th, with Ontario's turn happening at 1:55pm Eastern. A test alert message will be broadcast on radio and television stations, and sent to compatible cell phones.

The next test after this one will be in November.

https://www.alertready.ca/testing-schedule/

RadioActive · May 6, 2026 5:44 am

Just a reminder that this will take over your TV, radio and phone for a minute or two just before 2 PM this afternoon. Annoying but necessary.

AspectRatio · May 6, 2026 6:17 am

RadioActive wrote:
Just a reminder that this will take over your TV, radio and phone for a minute or two just before 2 PM this afternoon. Annoying but necessary.

Funny enough, I saw that this past Monday morning that for those in Ontario, they rescheduled this for a day later - Thursday, May 7th - and updated their chart.

RadioActive · May 6, 2026 6:31 am

Didn't see that and appreciate the update. I wonder why the change.

Even Dave Bradley on AM640 missed this on his moring newscast - he told listeners the test would happen on Wednesday.

Pelmorex did a good job "alerting" people about the test - but apparently, not the change of date.

AspectRatio · May 6, 2026 6:50 am

RadioActive wrote:
Didn't see that and appreciate the update. I wonder why the change.

Due to this:

The test, originally scheduled for May 6, was moved to avoid coinciding with funeral proceedings for OPP Sergeant Brandon Malcolm.

RadioActive · May 6, 2026 8:41 am

AspectRatio wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
Didn't see that and appreciate the update. I wonder why the change.
Due to this:

The test, originally scheduled for May 6, was moved to avoid coinciding with funeral proceedings for OPP Sergeant Brandon Malcolm.

Very good reason.

I phoned 640 this morning and to his credit, Bradley corrected it on air.

RadioAaron · May 6, 2026 7:48 pm

Binson Echorec wrote:
AspectRatio wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
Didn't see that and appreciate the update. I wonder why the change.
Due to this:

The test, originally scheduled for May 6, was moved to avoid coinciding with funeral proceedings for OPP Sergeant Brandon Malcolm.
I don't see the connection or conflict.

I assume so that dozen of phones don't start squealing in the middle of the service

RadioActive · May 6, 2026 9:10 pm

Binson Echorec wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
Binson Echorec wrote:

I don't see the connection or conflict.
I assume so that dozen of phones don't start squealing in the middle of the service

I thought that, too. If that's the case, then notable nobody Mabel Carson's funeral tomorrow will be interrupted. Hardly seems fair.

Yes, but I'm assuming Ms. Carson was not a first responder. Most funeral homes now ask visitors to turn off their cell phones before the service begins. Not sure if police can do that.

Evuguy · May 6, 2026 9:14 pm

If your cell provider still offers 3G service, force your phone to that network tomorrow and enjoy the silence, as NPAS is not supported.

RadioAaron · May 6, 2026 9:32 pm

Binson Echorec wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
Binson Echorec wrote:

I don't see the connection or conflict.
I assume so that dozen of phones don't start squealing in the middle of the service

I thought that, too. If that's the case, then notable nobody Mabel Carson's funeral tomorrow will be interrupted. Hardly seems fair.

And I thought of that, too. As a reason it ":makes sense"....I just don't think I like it either.

RadioActive · May 7, 2026 6:25 am

This time, the test should go for sure. Watch for your phone to go off and radio and TV stations to disappear in Ontario for about a minute at 1:55 PM.

Aytononline · May 7, 2026 2:06 pm

The big test just happened on my phone, I have the sound off, but this alert by passed that part of my cell phone. This was loud and clear. In the past if I had the my cell on mute it would only show on my screen, but no sound.

Saul · May 7, 2026 4:35 pm

Aytononline wrote:
The big test just happened on my phone, I have the sound off, but this alert by passed that part of my cell phone. This was loud and clear. In the past if I had the my cell on mute it would only show on my screen, but no sound.

Are you saying you had your phone on mute / vibrate and that it still sounded ?

Paul Jeffries · May 7, 2026 8:04 pm

Saul wrote:
Aytononline wrote:
The big test just happened on my phone, I have the sound off, but this alert by passed that part of my cell phone. This was loud and clear. In the past if I had the my cell on mute it would only show on my screen, but no sound.
Are you saying you had your phone on mute / vibrate and that it still sounded ?

Same here. I also have the "Test alerts" and "Amber alerts" settings turned off on my phone and it came through very loud and clear. Ordinarily those alerts should show up with just the message and the phone vibrating, and the message disappears when you hit OK.

I do have "Extreme threats" and "Severe threats" turned on though, so I wonder if they tested it as one of those?

PJ

turkeytop · May 7, 2026 8:52 pm

Not a peep from my weather radio.

Glen Warren · May 7, 2026 9:06 pm

Listening to The Legend 102.9 at 1:55 pm... Heard the announcement and alert tone.
Work phone (on Telus) received at text bulletin only, no Alert tone.
Personal phone (on Rogers) nothing...
If it wasn't for listening to The Legend, I could be dead by now....

Saul · May 7, 2026 10:14 pm

Paul Jeffries wrote:
I do have "Extreme threats" and "Severe threats" turned on though, so I wonder if they tested it as one of those?

I guess I should turn those off as well. I always thought vibrate would do the job. I don't need to have my cell go off at the opera. If nuclear armagedon happens, so be it...

RadioAaron · May 7, 2026 10:33 pm

Saul wrote:
Paul Jeffries wrote:
I do have "Extreme threats" and "Severe threats" turned on though, so I wonder if they tested it as one of those?
I guess I should turn those off as well. I always thought vibrate would do the job. I don't need to have my cell go off at the opera. If nuclear armagedon happens, so be it...

Fun fact: In Canada *everything* is coded as extreme and severe. In my opinion, a major reason people have tried everything they can to disable the alerts. When one it awoken enough times at 2am due to a custody battle in Sudbury....never cry wolf and all that.

Paul Jeffries · May 7, 2026 10:53 pm

Saul wrote:
I don't need to have my cell go off at the opera. If nuclear armagedon happens, so be it...

Not that there's a helluva lot you could do about it anyways, other than duck under the seats.

PJ

mace · May 8, 2026 4:46 am

I was listening to WKRP at work yesterday. Ironically. Ohio did a test alert about an hour before ours.

bmaudioworks · May 8, 2026 5:54 am

RadioAaron wrote:
Fun fact: In Canada *everything* is coded as extreme and severe. In my opinion, a major reason people have tried everything they can to disable the alerts. When one it awoken enough times at 2am due to a custody battle in Sudbury....never cry wolf and all that.

Exactly why I uninstalled, on my Android phone, the software that receives emergency alerts. Can be done using ADB (Android Debug Bridge) with the phone hooked up to almost any computer via USB. Unless things have changed, iPhone users are SOL and can't avoid the alerts visually or aurally. If one has the know-how with modifying Android app packages, the "nuclear war" attention tones we have in Canada can be changed to whatever sound, even silence... the sounds used by the alerting software are just a set of OGG audio files.

Paul Jeffries · May 8, 2026 11:33 pm

Then there's this, too.

Dutch princess unfazed as alert test blares during meeting with Carney

PJ