The Second Broadcast

### Episode 2: “The Second Broadcast”

Three days after WCRN was silenced, the emergency message returns.

It arrives through radios, telephones, television sets, and disconnected equipment—each transmission guiding its listener toward a distant source of static. But this time, the message speaks in voices they recognize.

As investigators examine the recordings, one question becomes impossible to ignore: if WCRN never transmitted the second broadcast, what did?

Headphones strongly recommended.

**Recognition is not authentication.**

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Reality Maintenance Division Historical Archive. File designation RF002. Common title: the second broadcast. The following material was collected three days after the WCRN interruption documented in file RF001. At the time of this incident, WCRN's transmitter was disconnected, its studio was sealed, and its broadcast license was under emergency suspension. No authorized emergency notification was issued. Supplemental interview. Present are Nora Vail, Daniel Reyes, and two investigators from the Department of Emergency Communications. The date is three days after the original interruption. Mr. Reyes, confirm the station's current transmission status.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

There is no transmission status. The main feed is physically disconnected. The backup exciter is in county storage. The emergency encoder was removed for inspection. There is no power to the antenna system.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Could the station transmit accidentally?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Could an outside party route a signal through the station?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Not through equipment that isn't connected. On the studio? Sealed after you collected the master.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

You have the keys. For the record, yes. Then why are we here again?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

At 6.12 this morning, the emergency message returned.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Where? We don't know how to answer that yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

What frequency? Several. That isn't an answer. AM radios, two television sets, a hospital paging receiver, a municipal dispatch console, at least four telephones that were not in active calls. Those systems do not share a carrier, we noticed.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

What did it say? The first message said to ignore the second one.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

So what did it say? The following recording was recovered from the kitchen of Mara Voss. Ms. Voss activated a portable cassette recorder after hearing the first emergency tone. She was alone in the residence.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

This is an emergency notification. Remain calm and listen carefully. Residents receiving this message should leave their current location. Do not secure exterior doors or windows. Travel on foot toward the nearest source of static. Do not delay.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

Lena? I need you to come outside. I'm at the end of your street. Bring the radio with you. Where are you calling from? I'm not calling. You can hear me because you know me. Come outside, Mara. Follow the static until it becomes clear. Lena, tell me what mom used to call the blue room. The aquarium. Okay. You remember. I knew you would. Come outside now. Bring the radio with you. Are you hurt? Not if you come now. Where do I go? Open the front door. The static will show you. I can hear it. I know. Keep walking until it becomes clear. Lena, keep talking to me. I'm here. Don't let anyone turn the radio off.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

This message will repeat until compliance is confirmed.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

You're going the right way.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Lena Voss was located 200 miles away. She denies participating in the transmission. Mara Voss left her residence carrying the radio and followed the static for approximately 22 minutes. She was one of the residents later recovered elsewhere in the affected area.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

The voice knew something private.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

It knew the answer, and that was enough.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

For Ms. Voss, yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Voice comparison remains inconclusive. The recovered audio contains enough matching characteristics to support recognition, but not enough stable material for identification.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

You mean it sounds exactly like her until you measure it?

SPEAKER_02 4:05

That is not how I would phrase it.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

It is how I would. Play the dispatch recording.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Owen Price was working alone at the East dispatch position when every inactive channel on his console opened simultaneously. The console's internal logger created this recording automatically.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

This is an emergency notification. Residents receiving this message should leave their current location. Travel on foot toward the nearest source of static. Control acknowledge. Stop transmitting. The building is compromised. Lead by the West Stairwell and walk towards the relay table. Supervisor, authenticate. Authentication is suspended. This is a direct order. What is your location?

unknown 4:56

Behind you.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

No visual contact. Then face the console and follow instructions. You can hear the correct route. Take your portable receiver. Do not allow anyone to turn it off. Control. I am declaring this channel unauthenticated. Your declaration has been recorded. What is printing? Your compliance report. It says I left the building. Then you should not still be there. East Dispatch is locking down. All channels are compromised. Disregard any instruction in my voice. Owen. You have already been relieved. Proceed toward the static.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

How many people went outside? Confirmed? Twenty-seven. And unconfirmed? We are still collecting statements.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Were they all carrying devices? Most of them. Radios, telephones, portable recorders, one television removed from a motel room.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Where did they go?

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Toward whatever they believed was producing the static.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

That isn't what I asked. We don't know. Did they come back?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Some of them. You said the station was involved.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

At 612, a monitoring service identified the source as WCRN.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Impossible.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

The registered station identifier was present on every captured transmission.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

An identifier is text. Anyone can insert it.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

The recordings also contain Nora's station identification from the original program.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

My voice?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Four words. You're listening to WCRN.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

I never said it that way.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

She says, and you're listening, always.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

The phrase appears in your continuous studio log.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

There is no continuous studio log. You took the master, and the station has been dark for three days. That is why we brought you here.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

That isn't ours.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

The reel is ours. The leader tape is mine. I marked it before the first broadcast.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

This reel was found mounted in WCRN's locked studio recorder at 7.40 this morning.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

You removed that reel three days ago.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

We removed a reel bearing the same serial number. It remains in our evidence room. Then one of them is a copy.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

We cannot determine which one. What's on it?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

The second broadcast.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Play it. No. You called me here because you can't verify the equipment. I can.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

We called you because the recording identifies itself as WCRN. We are not playing an active recording because someone in the room is curious.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Someone already played it. You know what's on it. We played it once. And I heard the standard emergency voice instructing residents to leave their homes.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

I heard someone else.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Who?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

That is not relevant to the equipment assessment. It is relevant to everything else. The voice was familiar. It used information the speaker should not have possessed. It instructed me to carry the reel out of the building.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Did you?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

The reel is still here.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

That wasn't my question.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

No. You need to destroy it. We do not know what destroying it would accomplish. We know what playing it accomplishes.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

We need a verified technical comparison. Then compare the tape. Don't listen to it.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Spectral analysis still requires playback.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Then stop calling it analysis like that makes it safe. That device does not have an authorization tone.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Turn it off.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

It's still recording. No, it isn't.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

This is an emergency notification. Residents receiving this message should leave their current location.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Come outside. The room's clear. Bring the recording. We know where you are.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Nobody move. Do not answer it.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

You can trust me. You know my voice. I'm waiting for you.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Was that the same thing you heard before?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

No.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

What changed?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

This time it knew there were four of us.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

The second emergency message was reported across a 42-mile area. No common transmitter, carrier frequency, electrical circuit, or communications network was identified. WCRN did not transmit the message. The station remained physically incapable of broadcasting throughout the incident. Nevertheless, 31 recordings bearing WCRN's identifier were recovered during the following investigation. No two contained the same complete message. Twenty-seven residents were confirmed to have left their homes in response to the transmission. Ninete returned before investigators reached them. Four were located elsewhere in the affected area. Four remained unaccounted for when this file was sealed.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

This is an emergency notification. Remain calm and listen carefully. Residents receiving this message should leave their current location. Travel on foot toward the nearest source of static. Take the device receiving this message with you. Do not allow anyone to interrupt your route.