Radio and Fire Alarms

When the fire alarm goes off by accident during your on-air shift, you must (1) figure out how to back announce the current musical selection between the ear-splitting "beeps"; (2) jettison the news and weather until the alarm stops; you'd get drowned out anyway; and (3) stay in the control room while the alarm frays your nerves.  This happened last week when the fire alarm panel malfunctioned somewhere in the bowels of the building.  After 15 minutes of every-two-second beeps, the alarm stopped, only to sound intermittently at irregular intervals for another 15 minutes.

After one break, a listener called, assuming that I was holding a contest to guess the sound. I told him there was no contest, only a malfunctioning alarm. All this points up that if there was a real fire, the show must go on. The announcer is obliged to stay in the control room until the flames lick at her shoes.