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I love EAS messages. The first part is actually three bursts of machine-readable data encoded as audio, and it's completely incidental that it's such a freaky sound.
There have been incidents of EAS-equipped devices triggering an alarm because an otherwise benign broadcast transmitted a valid EAS message without the short end-of-message bursts.
I don't think the sound itself is freaky (i.e. I don't think it'd be perceived as freaky by people not familiar with it or similar messages at all).
It's the implication. At least I (as a non-American) associate the sound not with "generic public safety message" but firmly with "the president will now say goodbye to the nation and tell everyone to hug their loved ones one last time before the 3000 nukes/an asteroid/hostile aliens wipe out all life on Earth".
I think some movies also used the sound for submarine Emergency Action Messages (aka the thing that makes those 3000 nukes fly).
Cue Always Sunny "It's the implication..." scene.