False alarm, according to the Pickering Fire Chief.

Most radio stations - with the exception of those noted and CFRB - were AWOL during this thing. I was listening to 640 when it went off on my phone. There was no emergency radio alert at all on the station and since there's apparently no one in their newsroom, there wasn't a single thing about it on their airwaves. I realize it's early on a Sunday and this doesn't happen very often, but that's what happens when you remain on autopilot when something big is happening. 

I thought RB did pretty well on this, with Dave Trafford and newsman Claude Feig doing non-stop play-by-play about the text and even bringing morning man John Moore in on the discussion for a time. 

If this was, indeed, a false alarm, I predict there is going to be hell to pay for it and it will become the next big talk show topic on Monday morning. You just can't get this kind of stuff wrong. 

I assume that the new ethnic station on 91.7 (serving Pickering and Ajax) will be right on top of a story/event like this.  

This from CBC.ca

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pickering-nuclear-generating-station-1.5424115

NW wrote:

I assume that the new ethnic station on 91.7 (serving Pickering and Ajax) will be right on top of a story/event like this.  

... except when WCML 91.7 in Alpena Michigan exceeds its authorized Grade B contours during summer and fall tropo season and overrides fringe signal areas like Northeast Pickering with news about safety precautions at Fermi 2 in Detroit.

I don't live anywhere near the plant, but the warning hit home for me anyway, because of what happened in 2018. You may remember an even worse bogus alert that went out in Hawaii indicating that a nuclear attack from North Korea was underway and to seek shelter immediately (as if that's really even possible or would do any good.)

As chance would have it, my brother, who happens to be a physician, was in Hawaii that week for a medical conference. (Doctors never seem to go to Thunder Bay for their conferences, only places like Hawaii or Paris.) He got the message while he was attending a meeting and the convention centre emptied out. He's pretty cynical to begin with and didn't believe it for a moment, but went back to his hotel room to wait out the supposed end of the world with his wife, who had also seen the warning.

He later told me their response to the alert was to order breakfast!

The guy responsible for that mistake was later fired. I wonder if the same thing will happen in this case.  

RadioActive wrote:

Tangentially to this thread, I just heard CFRB run a rather snarky promo about how they're generally live and local when other stations (and I'm pretty sure they were aiming straight at 640) are in reruns. "You can't get news, traffic and weather when you're running a show from last Tuesday," is one of the lines in the spot. 

Ouch, but also, considering what happened Sunday morning, touché.  

Coast to Coast is on CFRB right now while 680 is providing current traffic.  Don't dislocate your shoulder from patting yourselves on the back, CFRB.  You do the same thing for over 20 percent of your week.

Prod Guy wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Tangentially to this thread, I just heard CFRB run a rather snarky promo about how they're generally live and local when other stations (and I'm pretty sure they were aiming straight at 640) are in reruns. "You can't get news, traffic and weather when you're running a show from last Tuesday," is one of the lines in the spot. 

Ouch, but also, considering what happened Sunday morning, touché.  

Coast to Coast is on CFRB right now while 680 is providing current traffic.  Don't dislocate your shoulder from patting yourselves on the back, CFRB.  You do the same thing for over 20 percent of your week.

You know, you make a good point. This is the same station that runs taped newscasts for several hours on the weekend. That's simply inexcusable. At least 640, whatever its flaws, runs The Canadian Press casts at the top and bottom of the hour when their newsroom is empty. It may not be local, but at least it's up to date.