There are several different alerts that we get on our phone in Texas. Amber Alerts are the most common that let us know of a child or teen who has gone missing. That alert will give us information about what the child or teen looks like, what the alleged abductor looks like, license plate of a vehicle they may be in and any other pertinent information. Other alerts we will receive on our phone are for severe weather, public safety alerts and Blue Alerts. That Blue Alert is what pissed many of you off as it woke you up very early on Friday morning.

Blue Alert

What is a Blue Alert? This is an alert that we started receiving in 2008 after it was signed into law. This is to alert us of a person who has killed or seriously injured a law enforcement officer and is on the run. These Blue Alerts are not issued all will nilly. To be issued, the suspect must be a serious threat to us, the alert should contain a description of the suspect's vehicle, license plate number and it must be recommended by law enforcement to go out. If all of these elements can't be met, then an alert doesn't go out.

For early Friday morning, all of those elements were met and the Blue Alert went out...at 4:53 a.m. I heard it, you heard it, all of Texas heard it...and woke up many of you before you were even ready to. The Blue Alert came from Memphis, Texas which is a small town southeast of Amarillo. The suspect that we were being alerted to was Seth Michael Altman for shooting the police chief there. As of this writing (October 7, 2024, 1:56 p.m.), Altman is still on the loose and considered armed and dangerous.

Seth Michael Altman - Texas Department of Public Safety
Seth Michael Altman - Texas Department of Public Safety
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Texans Were Pissed

Texans were pissed at Seth Altman for two reasons. One for shooting the police chief in Memphis and two for causing the alert that went to our phones, waking us up a couple of hours before our regular alarm. Many Texans were so upset that they started filing complaints with the Federal Communications Commission or FCC (mysanantonio.com). We in radio are very familiar with the FCC as there are a bunch of regulations we have to follow to remain a licensed radio station.

After filing their complaint, Texans were digging into the settings of their phones to have those alerts turned off. It's an easy Google search to figure out how to do it for your particular phone.

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