A method of communicating an alert includes: encoding data received from a plurality of sources by a central content controller (CCC) and determining existence of one or more alerts. If no alerts exist, the encoded data is assigned as streams to subchannels. For existing alerts, a market area (MA) is determined and the alert is assigned as a stream to a data subchannel and the encoded data is assigned as streams to remaining subchannels. For each MA without an applicable alert, the encoded data is assigned as streams to the subchannels. The assigned data is transmitted to regional controllers (RCs) for broadcasting to the associated MAs.