In the event of a national emergency, American citizens were to adjust their radio dial to one of two radio frequencies designated as the CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) radio-alert system. Prior to 1951, there was no systematic way for the US government to communicate with citizens during the early years of the Cold War. As forerunners to CONELRAD, broadcasters would interrupt normal programming to issue emergency bulletins, as happened during the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack and the first tornado warning in 1948. Radios came equipped with two frequencies set aside for emergencies. The two civil defense symbols (sometimes red) appeared on radio tuning dials as pictured above.
There were those who felt the CONELRAD radio-alert system was not as effective as it could be and the National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) was invented as a supplement. It did not require a radio or television to be switched on to warn citizens, nor a civil defense siren to be in their vicinity. NEAR was a 3" square box warning device designed to plug into a standard power outlet to receive a special signal sent over the electric power transmission lines. Unfortunately, this "buzzer box" gave no instructions on what to do, leaving citizens to turn to their radios anyway. Both programs were made obsolete by 1963 with the advent of the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), still in use today.
Note: A CONELRAD automobile radio is used in the 1962 thriller, Panic In The Year Zero! about a nuclear attack on American cities.
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