Elk County Office of Emergency Services quality assurance supervisor Mark Greenthaner said emergency broadcasts have more listeners now than when he started with the agency in 2007 and attributes the rise in listenership to the advent of applications, or “apps,” available on smart phones, tablets and computers which allow curious residents to tune into emergency signals anywhere at anytime. 

“People hear sirens or see an ambulance go flying by them on the highway so they get on their computers, get on their phones, download the app for iPhone or Android and get on and they start to listen to see what the ambulance is going to,” Greenthaner said. 

Apps like “5-0 Radio” and “Scanner Radio Pro” are supplied with live scanner feeds by the central hub of online scanner feeds, Broadcastify.com, in turn, receives its signals from emergency service agencies or individuals in their listening audience. Elk County Emergency Services no longer offers a live feed, instead signals like those broadcast via the web and 4G networks are the work of ordinary citizens like Wayne Steele of Ridgway.

Using a home police scanner, audio cable, dedicated computer and high speed Internet connection, Steele has been uploading continual streams of Elk County emergency broadcasts to the World Wide Web since 2009. He averages 30 to 40 listeners.

It was Steele’s Broadcastify.com handle that garnered 255 online and mobile Elk County listeners during that Nov. 29 industrial fire at Camco Diversified in St. Marys. His largest ever audience, 317 listeners, came on Nov. 30 with the first snowfall of the year and slick road conditions.

A volunteer Ridgway firefighter and EMT since 1997, Steele believed an online scanner feed would make emergency broadcasts more reliable and accessible. He has no affiliation with Elk County Emergency Services. 

The appeal of the online scanner feeds is the nearly limitless connectivity they provide, Steele said, while recalling listening to an Elk County scanner feed with a St. Marys fire colleague while the two attended a conference in Hershey. 

“If you’re away from home and want to find out what’s going on at home, it’s kind of unique that you can take a radio and send it through the Internet,” Steele said, adding his online scanner feeds will continue “as long as there is way to get it online.” 

Greenthaner said the mobility of scanning has attracted a new audience, adding to the pre-existing group of scanner hobbyists. Including those listening to broadcasts on traditional, digital scanners at home, Greenthaner estimates the Elk County audience can reach upwards of a thousand. The pervasiveness of Elk County’s scanner culture is evident in the pool of applicants for positions within Elk County Emergency Services, according to Greenthaner, who said his interviews of prospective employees always include the question, “how many of you own a scanner.” 

“It’s usually if we hire four people, three of the four will raise their hand. I bet three out of four houses around here have a scanner. It’s just people always listening wanting to know what’s going on out there,” Greenthaner said. 

Knowing the public is listening, emergency and law enforcement personnel often resort to coded language or staying off the airwaves entirely to avoid leaking of sensitive information. Call the center for information or check Mobile Data Terminal, essentially a laptop mounted in a police vehicle, for a private message. 

“We know there are people listening so when it comes to sensitive information we just don’t air it,” Greenthaner said. “If it’s sensitive we have them call in or send a message on their laptop.” 

The scanner culture can also be a benefit to those same emergency services that avoid it by involving a multitude of listeners eager to help. Greenthaner said at times scanner hobbyists call in to warn emergency responders of dangerous road conditions or to answer police information requests, often providing them with a faster response than emergency services is able to offer. 

“They will call in because they heard it on the scanner and say they found this phone number or address for you if you need it,” Greenthaner said. “At times you could say (scanner listening) hurts because we have to watch what we say, but at the same time the scanner can be a good thing because people are out there listening and want to help, too.” 

 the evening of Nov. 29, as emergency vehicles raced to the scene of a multi-alarm industrial fire in St. Marys, 255 residents tuned into Elk County emergency broadcast channels using their cell phones and computers, making Elk County’s the second most listened to scanner feed in the country. 

The ranking was released by Broadcastify.com, an online website offering live streams of audio for public safety, aircraft, rail and marine related communications. According to Broadcastify.com, Elk County’s 255 listeners on Nov. 29 were the nation’s second highest total behind the Chicago Police Department’s 496 and more than those belonging to Detroit and San Diego’s law enforcement agencies.

Elk County again made the national list on July 16, ranking fourth behind the Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland police departments when 221 Elk County residents were counted listening to emergency radio chatter during a midday industrial fire in Ridgway.