The national weather service here in the states is not set up that way though.  We don't have the special tones coded to specific counties/regions.  It's all based upon what area that transmitter can get a signal into and that transmitter sends the same alert out to everyone listening in on that frequency.  So anyone listening to the 162.450 transmitter which covers my area and 150 miles away- be it in Denver or 2 counties over that still pick up that transmitter are going to get the alert when the NWS issues an advisory or alert regardless of if the weather alert is for their specific area.  So nice and sunny and calm in my area where as 2 counties over they have a tornado warning but I am going to hear the alert anyway.  Wide wide wide areas to cover and not enough $$$ to be able to afford transmitters everywhere, so they use high output transmitters to cover a wide area (100, 300, 500, and 1000 watt transmitters)some sitting on top of 14,000 ft mountains, and yup, lots of people are going to only be able to tune into that frequency but get alerts for areas that don't concern them.   

The SAME is a thing from the US (I was curious an looked for more details in the meantime... :-)), it isthe "lead in/out" type signalling. It is a digital (in fact an ASCII text) message with fixed format. It contains the exact area code (it is an unique code county or denser - see NOAA sites, search for SAME coding), type of emergency (wind, tornado, floods,...) and validity time (how long is the warning valid), plus some extra data. It is a kind of FSK modulation, but with a special format (not a standard UART thing), so you would need a dedicated tone decoder for that (but I believe it is doable as a DSP within some small micro with ADC, like ATTiny 85 or so, if it would have nothing else to do).

So when the broadcast begins, it sends out this message. The receiver (when SAME equipped) compares the area code and the warning type to what you have programmed as relevant for you and if it matches, it either just start flashing, display a text ot activate the audio - depends on how you set it up. If the codes do not match (some you can not turn off, like nuclear danger or so, some are always ignored, like auxiliary system test messages), the receiver just ignores it and stay quiet and dark (unless there isnt any previous still valid warning in its memory)

Receiver without SAME (or I guess even the one equipped, but when the SaAME is disabled), just plays everything the transmitter broadcasts.

@RyanF40T12:
This site nws.noaa.gov...State=CO gives the SAME codes for Colorado.
So if you were in Douglas county, and you had a SAME capable weather radio, you'd put in '008035' as your location code.
The page also shows 3 frequencies you can get in Douglas: 162.450, 162.500, 162.550

Where I live, those 3 same frequencies are listed. Since its a different county I would enter a different code...and shouldn't hear the same alerts you would. (assuming the radio was in 'standby'..if it was simply 'on' then you'd hear whatever, atleast as I understand)
 

Alright!  Now this is making sense!  Thank you!  I'll have to give that a shot. 

For anyone looking for the absolute best radio, and are willing to spend a little cash, I would highly recommend the Sangean CL-100. The quality of these is excellent, and they have some nice features like auto-shutoff, fully customizable SAME, and AM/FM. The audio quality is ridiculously awesome for its class. It blows everything else out of the water. It's also a very nice, sleek, modern looking design. It isn't bright yellow or ugly and doesn't stick out. You can usually find them right around the USD 50 pice point.

For anyone looking for the absolute best radio, and are willing to spend a little cash, I would highly recommend the  Sangean CL-100

Thanks for the recommendation..might have to check one of those out.
Same brand as the HD-Radio tuner I got for my stereo system. It was said to be one of the best back when I was looking to get a HD-Radio.

I've noticed a lot of the Sangean made radios and alarm clock-radios have RDS, which is not something common on portable radios here in US from what I seen. It looks like a nice radio.

I've noticed a lot of the Sangean made radios and alarm clock-radios have RDS, which is not something common on portable radios here in US from what I seen. It looks like a nice radio.

It will be more and more a common place, as the cheapest way to make radio today is to use one of the DSP based receiver chip (it contains the LNA, frequency synthesis for LO, around 225kHz quadrature IF feeding two channel ADC and the rest is in its digital gates (with some even SW), then DAs for audio output, all in one chip. And with that concept it is very simple to integrate extra features like RDS/RBDS, so most chips have that already. It is just the final radio maker decision to not use it (because the simple low power LCD has no way to display it, or it is reserved for just for more "expansive" models, differing only in the piece of code reading out the data from the radio chip.

It will be more and more a common place, as the cheapest way to make radio today is to use one of the DSP based receiver chip (it contains the LNA, frequency synthesis for LO, around 225kHz quadrature IF feeding two channel ADC and the rest is in its digital gates (with some even SW), then DAs for audio output, all in one chip. And with that concept it is very simple to integrate extra features like RDS/RBDS, so most chips have that already. It is just the final radio maker decision to not use it (because the simple low power LCD has no way to display it, or it is reserved for just for more "expansive" models, differing only in the piece of code reading out the data from the radio chip.

That makes sense. It seems in Europe and UK RDS is more common and I believe appeared earlier than here, possibly early 1980s. In US I think it first started showing up in early 2000s on car headunits, mostly ones from American automakers. Then Toyota and others got on board, with most recently Honda, Hyundai and Kia. Although it was mostly only offered on upper trim levels with higher spec systems. Most of these, used a green dot matrix display, although it got more common with cars having navigation systems to have color displays. It is becoming more standard in cars, and it's likely because of the federal mandate for backup cameras. In many vehicles the display is integrated to the stereo, so needs a color LCD screen anyway, so little reason not to go ahead and add RDS.

HD radio typically integrates RDS regardless, but I had seen on some Kia systems that it is only given on HD enabled stations, where other regular FM stations only show MHz and no info is displayed. My current car shows it on both and my previous car did for FM (no HD capability on it).

Most RDS capable systems also allow scanning for a specific type (news, rock, pop, religious, R&B, etc) and in some vehicles scan for a station with a traffic report. However, I don't think most people use/used this features, because it involves pushing sequences of buttons.

Not all stations take advantage of all features. The most basic simply display the call letters and give a program type for the stations. Others display full song title/artist name or what talk program is playing currently. Some stations also show websites and phone numbers for commercials played during ad breaks over the RDS.

As far as portable radios, I think some Bose systems have it, but otherwise I don't know of many here other than possibly very high end component systems. Our GE Spacemaker does have it though, but it was only on one or two models of it.

I have a couple of the Midland radios.  One is a squareish one that I bought while in Louisiana back in 2008.  To set it up, you had to go to a lookup table, select the frequency for your area, than enter in a numeric SAME code for your county.  I took it home to Alaska with me, but it's use didn't last long after getting woken up in the middle of the night a few too many times for "winter weather warnings" (it's snowing).

The new one is a little smaller and more round-ish.  Still have to find your frequency, but SAME is set by selecting state/county in the menu.  Much easier than the numeric system.  However, in a state with lots of counties, like Texas, it can take a while to scroll to find the county you need.  Especially if it's one near the middle, like Nueces.  I bought it in Louisiana in 2016, and have traveled quite a bit with it.  However, the display lens has come loose, and will fall off while handling.

Had one of these when i lived in mideatern kansas when i was 2/3-3 years old when i lived there and my parents are gonna get another one soon since we now live in kc