The Automated Emergency Broadcast System on ZA-Z (107.8 MHz)

The Automated Emergency Broadcast System on ZA-Z is on 107.8 MHz. Every in-game hour, which is every 7.5 real minutes, it reads out a bulletin the server writes itself: the in-game day and time, any news from the server, today's and tomorrow's weather in Celsius and km/h, power and water notices, and storm warnings up to five days ahead. The same words scroll across the top of zazomboid.com.

#What frequency is the emergency broadcast on?

107.8 MHz. The game rolls the AEBS frequency at random for every new world, anywhere from 88 to 108 MHz, so a frequency from another server's guide will not match ours. Any radio picks it up: a handheld radio, a car radio, or a set in a house. On a radio (not a TV) the station also plays the emergency tone while it speaks.

#What does the emergency bulletin say?

In airing order:

1. A station ident with a burst of static.
2. The clock, for example Day 28, Thursday 5 August, 06:00.
3. Messages from the server, each in its own colour.
4. The forecast for today and tomorrow, for example Today: cloudy, 19 to 27C, moderate SW wind to 20 km/h. Heavy rain from the afternoon. Morning bulletins also mention fog.
5. Knox Power Grid and Knox Water Authority notices in the two days before a utility fails, and after. See Power and Water for the water dates.
6. A severe weather warning when a thunderstorm, tropical storm or blizzard is due 2 to 5 days out: Severe weather warning: tropical storm expected in 3 days.
7. A last blip of static.

The power grid has the same three steps (power fluctuations, systems failing, blackout), but with the grid on for good you should not hear them.

#How often does the AEBS air?

At the top of every in-game hour. Each line holds for 1.5 to 5 seconds, so a bulletin is over in well under a real minute, and the station stays silent until the next hour, about six and a half real minutes later. If you tune in and hear nothing, wait for the hour.

Right after a server restart the first bulletin can be the game's own long-form version. The server's bulletin takes over within a couple of minutes of someone being online.

#Why are the units metric?

The server's radio is set to Celsius, so every bulletin reads temperatures in C and wind in km/h, whatever your own game options say. Your thermometer on screen still follows your own settings.

#Messages from the broadcast desk

ZA-Z runs a broadcast desk on the server. A message can air in every bulletin, once a day at a set in-game hour, or just once in the next bulletin. Urgent news can go out straight away, and it can be sent to every radio and TV station at once, not only 107.8. If something big is happening on the server, a radio is the in-game way to hear about it. Weather events can carry their own messages too: see Weather and Events.

#The ticker on zazomboid.com

Every page of zazomboid.com carries the current bulletin as a ticker under the menu: a red AEBS 107.8 tag, the lines scrolling past with their static, and the in-game date and hour on the right on wider screens. Hover over it to pause it. It is a snapshot taken every couple of hours, so it can trail the game by up to two hours; the radio is always the live version.

#Life and Living re-runs

In a normal game, Life and Living TV only airs in the first days of a new world, teaching Cooking and Carpentry every day plus Fishing, Farming, Foraging and Trapping, and recipes such as the fishing rod, cake batter, crate trap and pie dough. ZA-Z can re-run the whole series from its first episode, as it did on 7 September 2026, so survivors who arrived late get their turn.

• Four shows a day, at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 in-game (45 real minutes apart), across 12 in-game days.
• A show starts when someone tunes in during its slot, then plays in full.
• Skill XP comes from the coded lines, and only until that skill reaches level 3.
• Each character earns from a line once. If your current character already heard it, a re-run pays nothing; a new character starts fresh.