I'd rather have a warning that didn't consist of a disembodied phone call-quality voice, piercing electronic sounds, and white-on-black graphics that look like they're generated on a ZX Spectrum.
I doubt the design of the EAS is intentional, but considering American television likes to be as dramatic as possible, it wouldn't surprise me if they try and make people s**t themselves half the time with these alerts. The AMBER alert sound, which I've only ever seen get used once during a news broadcast uploaded on Youtube, is unnecessarily dark and eerie. Not even sure if it still gets used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srsg0T1-6_Y
The tone is designed to become obnoxious so it will gather a viewer or listeners attention as its a sound that's not possible without a computer creating. The tone also serves as a dual purpose as a signal that's used to get the attention of other stations EAS encoders down the line. The whole EAS system is set up like a daisy chain in each state you usually have two primary entry point stations that receive the alerts from the federal government via satellite and Internet. The primary entry point stations typically are AM radio stations, many of which a clear channel stations that cover the entire state and then some, that receive the signal and rebroadcast it on their frequencies. Other radio and television stations in the market are tuned to the primary entry point stations and a back up and they then retransmit the signal. Some of the poor audio quality would likely be attributed to it initially being transmitted monaurally and that signal was later encoded again and again. The system was set up for redundancy and expediency.
The tones are also encoded with a header that identifies what type of alert is being transmitted (stations only have to pass along presidential alerts, tornado warnings and a few others), the time the alert was transmitted (I believe the estimated duration) and in the case of severe weather when it will expire, and the regions affected (EAS alerts typically only include county/state data and not towns or polygon alert areas) and once the alert is finished transmitting it will close out expiring the alerts.
The EAS tones are protected and the FCC has fine stations for improper use of the tones (or any similar recreation) outside of an active alert. A radio show in
Nashville TN syndicated radio showplayed an EAS tone that aired in a television video clip and the tone was then picked up by AT&T Uverse (a fiber Internet / cable company) which
locked up their systems in three different states Georgia, Michigan and Texas. The Nashville station that originated the tones was fined $1,000,000. What likely stopped the situation from getting worst and cascading across the country was likely due to many stations having properly setup their encoders to require basic Header Data for the date in question 24 October 2014 when the tone that was broadcast came from 9 November 2011.
A lot of TV stations do their own thing when it comes to EAS alerts - basically the only ones that get the EAS tone are presidential addresses and tornado warnings. Otherwise they can disseminate the information in their choosing such as running a craw during an AMBER Alert, a detailed ticker during severe weather with a little radar box showing the affected region. When these appear on screen it will likely sound a very loud version of their breaking news stinger, a chime such as G-E-C, or the simple beep beep beep.
Many stations also "personified" versions of their logos so when your viewer should know that there's a heat advisory out but does not necessitate a crawl. The personified version of the logos would have falling snow during a blizzard watch, an ominous cloud with a lighting bolt during a severe thunderstorm warning, a gust of wind for wind chill warnings and a sweating thermometer next to their logo for heat advisories.
A lot of the EAS alert graphics that appear on YouTube come from cable viewers. Given that cable companies likely have thousands of individual systems, some with different zones they needed a way to cheaply and effectively broadcast the important information to their subscribers.
There have been three or four Amber Alerts in Maryland in the past two years and I've never heard that sound be used to denote an alert was coming.