The first ever test of a new nationwide system to alert citizens to a major emergency took place in Alaska on Wednesday morning. In theory, the three minute test of the Emergency Action Notification system was supposed to go over every radio and television station in the state at the same time.

Button punching shortly after 10 a.m., when the test began, showed that not every Anchorage radio station made the gate. Progressive talk station KUDO, at 1080 AM, had only dead air while other stations were broadcasting the alert message more or less simultaneously. Classical FM station KLEF did the same.

But KXLW, 96.3 FM, aka "The Wolf," did them one better by continuing to play music during the test, Neil Young's protest masterpiece, "Ohio," in the original Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recording.

That may not have been intended as irony.

-- Mike Dunham