Okay so I kept hearing about this News Munster thing popping up in tech chats – basically how people find breaking reports super fast. Figured I’d test it myself since my usual Twitter scroll wasn’t cutting it anymore. Grabbed my coffee, cracked knuckles, and dove in blind.
First Total Mess
Started like everyone does: google search. Typed “emergency alerts [my city]” like a normie. Big mistake. Got buried under government weather warnings and decade-old articles. Felt like digging through trash with oven mitts. Then tried slapping “live” and “breaking” into searches – nope, just TV station homepage clickbait. My phone blew up with useless notifications about celebrity breakups instead.
Download Party Disaster
Went app hunting. Grabbed anything labeled “news alert” from the store. Big names, random ones, whatever. My home screen looked like a yard sale. Within hours:
- App 1: 60% ads, 30% sports scores
- App 2: Shoved local cat rescue stories at me
- App 3: Needed like 47 permissions just to show yesterday’s traffic
Uninstalled everything before lunch. Felt scammed.
Custom Alert Setup
Remembered that news sites have custom alert settings but never use them. Logged into three major ones. Their “breaking news” options hid like Easter eggs:
- Site A: Breaking news checkbox was greyed out
- Site B: Only let me pick “weekly digest” or “sponsored content”
- Site C: Had 89 categories including “lifestyle fluff” but no disaster tab
Checked my email next morning – got coupons for mattresses.
Twitter Monster Taming
Back to Twitter but weaponized it this time. Unfollowed all meme accounts. Followed ONLY these:
- Local fire department handles
- City traffic cams
- Verified police scanners
- Two grumpy retired reporters
Made a Twitter list called “EMERGENCY ONLY”. Game changer. Saw road closures and power outages ten minutes before news sites. Finally.
Scanners & Water Cooler Talk
Heard scanner apps were gold. Downloaded one that streams police/fire radios. Sounded like robots chewing static first hour. Eventually recognized unit numbers and codes. Now I keep it on low volume while working. Also told my barista about the hunt – turns out her cousin works dispatch. She texts me quicker than any app now when sirens blare past the cafe. Humans 1, algorithms 0.
Still miss stuff occasionally but way better than before. Lesson? Forget fancy apps. Mix scanners, curated social lists, and old-school human tipsters. Took weeks but now my phone actually buzzes for real crap.
