A communication system (10) uses commercial, mass market paging
transmission facilities (16) to deliver messages (18') to a population of
reception devices (22). Each reception device (22) includes a display
screen (48) at which lines (72) of national and local news and
advertising, a banner advertising box (74) and a clock (76) are displayed.
Line buttons (54') are aligned with the displayed lines (72). The
reception device (22) is configured so that a user may press a line button
(54') aligned with a particular line (72) scrolling on the display screen
(48) to view additional details related to the subject matter of the
particular line (72). Selected lines (72) include alert activating codes
(42) which signal the reception device (22), when enabled, to activate an
alert which attracts the user's attention to those selected lines (72).
