The Walking Dead among shows fined for using emergency alert tone

While some fans may not have noticed the Emergency Alert System tone being used in The Walking Dead, they were fined a hefty amount for using in on TV.

The Walking Dead is a science fiction show. Zombies aren’t real (at least for now) and the characters and situations are all created by a team of talented writers, producers, actors, and others to make a show for television.

There are some things you can’t do in a show. AMC usually does a great job with keeping their show suitable for television by keeping their violence, language, and gore to acceptable levels. But recently the FCC nailed the hit undead drama with a big fine for audio used in a broadcast.

According to Reuters.com, representatives from The Walking Dead and the FCC came to an agreement on a fine of  $104,000 for using the Emergency Alert System tone during an episode from season 9.

Fans will remember from season 9 episode 10 the story of Alpha and Lydia at the beginning of the outbreak when they took refuge in the basement of a building. This installment of the story shed a lot of light on the relationship between those two characters as well as set the tone for the emergence of Alpha as a ruthless leader.

However, the use of the EAS tone in that episode drew the ire of the FCC.

The FCC is following the letter of the law as the commission wants to “avoid confusion when the tones are used, alert fatigue among listeners, and false activation of the system by the operative data elements contained in the alert tones.”

Other shows were also fined for the use of that tone. Reuters added that Animal Planet’s Lone Star Law and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live were also among those hit with a fine was southern California-based radio stations KDAY and KDEY-FM.

AMC and The Walking Dead will likely learn their lesson after paying this hefty sum for using the sound during a television broadcast, even if it was just an oversight on the part of the producers and the network.