Radio stations have been a mainstay of American life since the 1920s. Broadcasting primarily over AM and FM frequencies, American radio stations have been used to provide entertainment, news, weather, and advertising to the public. Beginning in 1963 and continuing until 1997, local radio stations were part of the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) that was developed during the Cold War and designed to be part of the nation's civil defense system. Between 1976 and 1996, the EBS was activated over 20,000 times to broadcast civil emergency messages and warnings of severe weather hazards. Therefore, the use of a local radio station as part of an emergency notification system is not a new concept. A major concern for integrating a campus radio station into an institution's emergency communications plan results from the fact that many radio stations are not continuously staffed. However, Western Carolina University addressed this issue by consulting with a local media consulting firm and developing an automatic telephone answering device. The device interfaces with an electronic program switching module. This setup allows the university police department to dial into the program and access the on-air program. Through the use of a PIN, police telecommunicators can interrupt the on-air program and deliver an alert message.