The United States emergency communications capability was re-examined following the
Cuban missile crisis of 1961. This resulted in the scrapping of EBS's predecessor
CONELRAD.
Designed with local use in mind in the case of disasters, the Emergency Broadcast System was still hoped to be useful in the event of a nuclear emergency. The familiar two-tone alert was developed for the Emergency Broadcast System, as well as the monthly tests to ensure that the system worked properly. EBS was used extensively for local emergencies, such as brush fires and hurricanes, and while it was never needed to warn of a nuclear attack, it did fulfill its purpose to warn the American people of natural disasters. In 1997, the Emergency Alert System updated the EBS, and so the eerie test messages faded into history.