Easy answer- how much of the media is now nationwide?

Cable and satellite are worthless if they only show their local emergencies- CNN is out of Atlanta, Fox News is from NYC, and MSNBC is... don't remember, NYC or LA. Either way, if those run ONLY their local emergency alerts, they are utterly worthless. Clear Channel Radio is just as bad, maybe even worse.

Now, would I use national for something like hurricane warning or a tornado watch? Generally, no.

I would use them for something like multiple attacks in several cities, or even just several serious attacks in one city, along with the advisory that watchers should tune to local media. A fast, 20-30 second beep and message at the top and bottom of the hour.

It isn't perfect, but what we have now is perfectly useless to reach the sizable portion of the population that just doesn't bother with network television. And of course, the national outlets I'm talking about seem to have all screwed it up.

*sighs* I keep telling myself the current state of affairs will be considered a good thing in three hundred years.