Diane,
I have had my radio for a little over seven years now. Radio Shack no longer makes the exact same model.
This one appears to be it successor. The key is to get one with SAME coverage. That is what allows you to pick out warnings by county.
The radio mentioned by KCI appears to be a Midland version of what I have. In my case, I just left all the warning codes on (the default option). Living in the midwest, like KCI I have no interest in surf warnings, but it doesn't hurt to let those warnings coded into the radio. Since there will never be a surf alert for my county, having that warning code left on never causes any kind of alert to occur. (If they did issue a surf alert for my specific county, we would have a lot more to worry about than just high surf.)
Like KCI, I have had alerts that are for my county go off in the middle of the night and appreciate the warnings enormously. I just don't want to be alerted for a thunderstorm going through a hundred miles to the north.
By the by, if you are away from home and an alert is issued, an orange or red light remains on until the alert is over. You can either look at the LCD message screen or turn the radio on to find out the nature of the warning.