1 of 1- RadioActive
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The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
It is almost impossible to believe it's been 87 years since Orson Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast on CBS Radio, a moment in the industry's early youth that has become legendary.
It happened almost 90 years ago tonight - Oct. 30th, 1938, and the stories about the night it aired have only grown with time. The fact the "great panic" that surrounds the broadcast didn't really happen has done nothing to diminish its fame.
Why did the stories about people panicking happen? One theory is that newspapers were wary of the new medium and wanted to tarnish its reputation.
"The supposed panic was largely works of fiction by newspapers looking for ways to take down the medium threatening their livelihoods - the radio."
October 30: The radio broadcast mass panic that never happened
- mace
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Re: The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
Back then my mom and dad would have been 12 and 13. My grandparents had a large floor model radio with labeled push buttons. I remember WBEN and CFRB were two of them. I wonder if they listened to War of the Worlds on WBEN.
- mojo55
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Re: The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
During the 1930s, WKBW radio shared CBS affiliation with WGR radio and WBEN then was most likely the NBC affiliate for Buffalo. Since WKBW's signal was very weak in Toronto, local listeners would have been tuning in to
CFRB, a CBS affiliate to hear The War of the Worlds. WBEN would have been airing the highly rated Charlie McCarthy Show from NBC.
- RadioActive
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Re: The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
The article below is from the Toronto Star. It's very, very long but undeniably fascinating. It's from Oct. 31, 1938, the day after "The War Of The Worlds" ran on radio. And it purports to tell the story of what happened.
Two interesting points as far as this board is concerned: the broadcast aired on CFRB here, so there was no reason to listen on a Buffalo station. And the screaming headline indicates not much has changed - the first instinct in Canada when something causes a problem is to immediately talk about banning it from ever happening again. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Sorry about the reproduction, but it was all over the place and this was the easiest way to display it. 
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Thread Starter- Cheese2RF
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Re: The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
i really enjoy this episode of Orson Welles Sketchbook on the BBC where he reminisces about the event, and about some of his intentions and take aways!
- ckg927
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Re: The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
mojo55 wrote:
During the 1930s, WKBW radio shared CBS affiliation with WGR radio and WBEN then was most likely the NBC affiliate for Buffalo. Since WKBW's signal was very weak in Toronto, local listeners would have been tuning in to
CFRB, a CBS affiliate to hear The War of the Worlds. WBEN would have been airing the highly rated Charlie McCarthy Show from NBC.
Of course, many years later in 1968 WKBW put on its own version of War of the Worlds...followed by versions in 1971, 1973 and 1975.
- Shorty Wave
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Re: The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
AM740’s “Theatre of the Mind” aired War of the Worlds over a couple of evenings last week. I listened to the first few minutes again as I have heard the whole broadcast years ago. It was actually pretty well done! I thought cutting between the orchestra and the news updates was quite effective, anyways, everyone already know this ShortyWave!
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Re: The Radio Broadcast From 87 Yrs. Ago We Still Talk About Today
In case you've never heard it:
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