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Oops! Local TV viewers hear replay of phony warning of zombie attack

LA CROSSE--A goof-up by some La Crosse disc jockeys caused viewers of WKBT-TV to hear a warning of a zombie attack.

The message went out shortly after 7:30 a.m. when the hosts of the Z-93 morning show were joking about how hackers broke into the Emergency Alert System of a Montana TV station Monday and sent out the bogus warning.

The problem: Z-93 is the primary station in the local EAS network, and when the DJs played a tape of the hoax, the alert tones triggered WKBT’s receiver, which automatically rebroadcast the signal.

Viewers heard both the phony message - which warned of “dead bodies rising from their graves” in several Montana counties and attacking the living - as well as the local DJs’ laughter.

The hackers’ message warned people not to “approach or apprehend these bodies as they are extremely dangerous.”

“Our engineers caught it immediately and called them,” said Z-93 station manager Brian Michaels, who apologized to WKBT and said the station’s engineers were checking the EAS equipment and working to ensure the problem doesn’t happen again.

Michaels said as far as he knows WKBT was the only station to pick up the alert, which would normally be carried by all radio and television stations broadcasting to La Crosse and surrounding counties.

WKBT’s chief engineer said the station has adjusted the filters on its EAS receiver. La Crosse County Emergency Management Coordinator Keith Butler said his agency sends out weekly tests that aren’t actually broadcast.

“This one went right through the system,” he said, calling it “a lesson learned for the on-the-air staff.”