This week’s Radio Ink Blast From The Past looks back at perhaps the most famous Halloween broadcast in radio history.
On October 30, 1938, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed and narrated by Orson Welles, aired its now-legendary adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds on CBS Radio. Presented as a series of breaking news bulletins describing a Martian invasion of New Jersey, the broadcast’s realistic format stunned listeners unfamiliar with the program’s dramatic premise.
Eighty-seven years later to the day, the following morning’s headlines tell the rest of the story – and explain why this broadcast remains immortalized as one of radio’s most unforgettable moments.
We love sharing your broadcast memories at the end of every week – we even share the best in our print edition every month – and we want to see more! Carts, Reel-to-Reel Machines, and Turntables in your pictures are highly encouraged.
Send your Blast From The Past story and photo to Editor-in-Chief Cameron Coats for your chance to be featured in Radio Ink.
Theater of the mind at its finest. We’ve listened to that broadcast so many times that we can quote just about every line. The story goes that Mercury didn’t have a sponsor at the time. After that broadcast, guess what? They had a sponsor.
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