With radio becoming the dominant source of breaking news in the 1930s, it is perhaps not so surprising to hear about the problem of “fake news”, and the panic and hysteria that followed the broadcasting of the most infamous radio talk show: The War of the Worlds.
Orson Welles' radio show “The War of the Worlds” aired on Sunday, October 30, 1938 in New York and caused national panic when the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) broadcast vividly described invading Martian armies, mostly through news bulletins that interrupted the program, without informing listeners it was entertainment. What followed was a mass panic across the country that made some listeners flee their homes as they believed a Martian invasion was really taking place. The massive hysteria was caused by the confusion of some listeners who tuned in to the broadcast of the play late and missed the introduction which provided the context for the broadcast.
”War of the worlds” was not planned as a radio hoax, and Welles had little idea of the chaos it would cause. Unwittingly, Welles and the Mercury Theatre of the Air made one of the most fascinating and significant demonstrations proving that a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can convince masses of people of a completely unreasonable and irrational proposition creating a nation-wide panic.
Invader? No, it's a man dressed as one in 1988. He was in Grovers Mill, N.J., at a 50th anniversary celebration of The War of the Worlds broadcast.
Chris Lischy/APWe interrupt this blog to bring you a special bulletin:
Martians have invaded New Jersey!
OK, as far as we know that hasn't happened.
But we wanted to issue that faux alert because 75 years ago tonight, as our friend Korva Coleman pointed out on the NPR Newscast, Orson Welles and his troupe of radio actors interrupted the Columbia Broadcasting System's programming to "report" that our planet had been invaded.
Ever since then, it's been accepted as fact that the broadcast scared the dickens out of many Americans.
Morning Edition, for instance, reported in 2005 that "listeners panicked, thinking the story was real." Many supposedly jumped in their cars to flee the area of the "invasion."
Just this past weekend, our colleagues at Radiolab devoted their very first live hour to a "deep dive into one of the most controversial moments in broadcasting history: Orson Welles' 1938 radio play about Martians invading New Jersey."
According to Radiolab, about 12 million people were listening when Welles' broadcast came on the air and "about 1 in every 12 ... thought it was true and ... some percentage of that 1 million people ran out of their homes."
"That constitutes a major freakout," Radiolab says.
Orson Welles delivering a radio broadcast in 1938, the same year he aired his War of the Worlds fake news program.
/APWell, Slate has a different opinion. "The supposed panic was so tiny as to be practically immeasurable on the night of the broadcast," it concludes. According to Slate:
"Far fewer people heard the broadcast — and fewer still panicked — than most people believe today. How do we know? The night the program aired, the C.E. Hooper ratings service telephoned 5,000 households for its national ratings survey. 'To what program are you listening?' the service asked respondents. Only 2 percent answered a radio 'play' or 'the Orson Welles program,' or something similar indicating CBS. None said a 'news broadcast,' according to a summary published in Broadcasting. In other words, 98 percent of those surveyed were listening to something else, or nothing at all, on Oct. 30, 1938. This miniscule rating is not surprising. Welles' program was scheduled against one of the most popular national programs at the time — ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's Chase and Sanborn Hour, a comedy-variety show."
Slate also argues that there's no data to support the idea that many radio listeners heard about the broadcast and tuned in during it. And it points out that "several important CBS affiliates (including Boston's WEEI) pre-empted Welles' broadcast in favor of local commercial programming, further shrinking its audience."
So how did the story of the "panic" grow over the years? Slate blames newspapers, which allegedly "seized the opportunity presented by Welles' program to discredit radio as a source of news. The newspaper industry sensationalized the panic to prove to advertisers, and regulators, that radio management was irresponsible and not to be trusted."
Radiolab isn't the only news outlet marking the 75th anniversary, of course. There's also this report from PBS-TV's American Experience, which says that "although most listeners understood that the program was a radio drama, the next day's headlines reported that thousands of others plunged into panic, convinced that America was under a deadly Martian attack."
So which was it, mass panic or hyped-up hysteria? Something in between? This blogger recalls his father saying the broadcast went mostly unnoticed in the quiet hills of Western New York State.
Any other first- or second-hand memories are welcome in the comments thread.
ORG XMIT: WX10 ** FILE ** Orson Welles broadcasts his radio show of H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel ‘The War of the Worlds’ in New York in this Oct. 30, 1938 black-and-white file photo. Mars has inspired the human imagination for more than a century, generating a parade of little green men and bug-eyed monsters first sparked by the belief that the planet was crisscrossed with alien-made canals. Today, fantasy has given way to science, with the Spirit rover sending back eerily clear pictures of empty vistas and a president promising that humans will be sent to the Red Planet. (AP Photo, Files)
Almost 85 years ago – Oct. 30, 1938 – “War of the Worlds” was broadcast on CBS Radio, including KNX (1070 AM) here in Los Angeles. In his radio adaption of H. G. Wells’ book for his program “Mercury Theater on the Air,” Orson Welles scared the nation into believing that Earth was being taken over by Martians.
Panic ensued as listeners believed the program was actually broadcasting real news bulletins. Or at least that’s what we have all been led to believe.
While there may have been a few who missed the numerous announcements, which were made at every break, that this was a play, the idea that the entire country panicked has been at best an exaggeration. An urban myth.
As it turns out, the audience for the radio play was small. Slate.com, in a report they ran in 2013, said that most of the nation was tuned to the popular NBC program, “Edgar Bergen’s Chase and Sanborn Hour,” a comedy and variety show. In fact, the Hooper Ratings service had telephoned households the night of the broadcast for its national ratings survey and determined that only two percent of the potential audience was listening to Welles’ show.
This means that 98% of America was not.
“Far fewer people heard the broadcast — and fewer still panicked — than most people believe today,” said the story by Jefferson Pooley and Michael J. Socolow.
As well, it must also be added that some CBS affiliate stations preempted the Mercury Theater show in favor of local programming, further limiting the audience.
So how did a non-panic become a known panic? As Slate explains, “Radio had siphoned off advertising revenue from print during the Depression, badly damaging the newspaper industry. So the papers seized the opportunity presented by Welles’ program to discredit radio as a source of news.” Sounds kind of sounds like television news today … but I digress.
Regardless, the show is considered a classic. While KNX no longer airs the Drama Hour that once ran “War” annually at Halloween, you can still find it online on one of the Old Time Radio sites such as otr.net, which has a download available.
What’s With Bongino?
Dan Bongino, heard locally on KABC from 9 a.m. to noon, has been making headlines fighting with Cumulus Media — distributor of his syndicated show, as well as the owner of many stations on which his show is carried. He’s threatening to quit over the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Interesting, especially since Bongino has already been vaccinated, according to published reports. For his part, he says he is sticking up for his fellow employees who may not wish to get it.
But here’s what came to my mind as I heard this. Bongino — and this is true of all the Rush Limbaugh hopefuls whatever side of the political aisle they’re on — doesn’t have Limbaugh’s strengths as a broadcaster — or his radio popularity (though The Washington Post has a story detailing his “mini empire” of other ventures). So I’m not sure how big the outcry would be if he did quit radio. (For a non-scientific comparison, I used to get Limbaugh emails and letters all the time, pro and con. My count for Bongino so far? One. And it was critical.)
However.
By protesting, Bongino doesn’t appear to be breaking company policy even as he speaks out against it. So while I don’t think Cumulus wants to be part of anything that may be considered anti-vaccine, I don’t expect the company to force him off the air for his stance.
My hunch? Cumulus probably is just enjoying the publicity in hopes of a ratings boost.