It was my understanding that radio stations were required by law to have someone at the station available at all times to help convert the station into an Emergency Broadcast Network, if required.
I remember being trained how to work this funny machine when I was a DJ at WIDR radio in Kalamazo, MI in 1986. Surely, these regulations have not been de-regulated!
The Trouble With Corporate Radio: The Day the Protest Music Died
By Brent Staples for the NY Times

Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, had a potential disaster in his district when a freight train carrying anhydrous ammonia derailed, releasing a deadly cloud over the city of Minot. When the emergency alert system failed, the police called the town radio stations, six of which are owned by the corporate giant Clear Channel. According to news accounts, no one answered the phone at the stations for more than an hour and a half. Three hundred people were hospitalized, some partially blinded by the ammonia. Pets and livestock were killed.

Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/20/opinion/20THU4.html
February 20, 2003
The Trouble With Corporate Radio: The Day the Protest Music Died
By BRENT STAPLES
Pop music played a crucial role in the national debate over the Vietnam War. By the late 1960’s, radio stations across the country were crackling with blatantly political songs that became mainstream hits. After the National Guard killed four antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio in the spring of 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded a song, simply titled “Ohio,” about the horror of the event, criticizing President Richard Nixon by name. The song was rushed onto the air while sentiment was still high, and became both an antiwar anthem and a huge moneymaker.
A comparable song about George W. Bush’s rush to war in Iraq would have no chance at all today. There are plenty of angry people, many with prime music-buying demographics. But independent radio stations that once would have played edgy, political music have been gobbled up by corporations that control hundreds of stations and have no wish to rock the boat. Corporate ownership has changed what gets played