It's another Emergency Alert Test, and it will come to a phone, TV or radio near you at 12:55 PM next Wednesday (Nov. 15th.) We get two of these a year at different times across the country and this should be the last one for 2023. 

Everyone in the country will hear it, with two exceptions - Alberta and the Northwest Territories, which for some reason are sitting this one out. 

The tests interrupt any show you're watching or hearing, although if it's on TV you may be able to follow along with closed captioning turned on. 

These things are mostly benign, but not always. Last week, I was watching the TV show "Found" on NBC, when a test of the Emergency Broadcast System came on at exactly 10:50 PM. The huge claxon and a banner on the screen identified it as a required test issued by WBEN-AM (although the screen said WBUF.) 

Normally, I don't mind these things but this one went on for at least three minutes, and was followed by election results audio from AM 930 in Buffalo, which obviously was not meant to be heard over TV. But in this case, I was livid - the test came on right at the most dramatic part of the show, as a missing man says a tearful farewell to his mother dying of cancer and for some reason, it cut off the closed captioning, so everyone watching missed the best part. 

I know they're vital, but this was a giant middle finger to anyone investing time in this show, because they simply could not have picked a worse moment to send it, especially when it wasn't even real. I had to go online later to see the most important part of the program that I missed. So 12:55 PM won't be that onerous. 

The Test Time Schedule By Province