If You, (yes You) were to be alive on the 30th of October 1938, live in the United States & happen to be listening to the CBS Radio, precisely between the times of 22 Seconds past 8:02PM, and the significantly later 52 seconds past 8:38PM; You might not have been aware that you were listening to a Radio Serial.
I am, of course, talking about the subject of this article. One of the most infamous “Incidents with a Capital I” that has occurred in Radio History.
The 1938 Broadcast of Orson Welles’ adaptation of G.W Wells’ (no relation, probably) “WAR OF THE WORLDS”. 

This is to say, that it was all a work of Fiction broadcast over the airwaves.
Unfortunately, its biggest problem came in the way it was Broadcast. 

It was not Broadcast like most Radio Serials of the time, which were more akin to a modern Audiobook, Podcast or Movie playing from a broken TV. 

No, It was Broadcasted as if it was a live, breaking news story that was unfolding before the Listener’s Ears.
This was precisely why You might not realise that the Radio Serial was false. 

Now, I know. It might sound a bit silly. Another case of “Haha – People in the past were so Stupid! XD”. 

But, I would like you to take a moment. Place yourself in the Shoes of The Time. 
Dread the building tensions of a looming (but not quite here yet) WW2.
Sit in a seat where nothing like this has been done before. Where this method of Storytelling is new.
At a time where New things are constantly being discovered by the Egg-Heads of the Era.
Where You (yes, You) don’t know that this isn’t real.
Where you missed that Warning at 8:02PM.
Where you don’t have an Internet to fact check Information instantly. At a time when you either had to wait for the News Papers in the Morning, or listen to The Radio for your News.
Maybe You have a favourite Station, maybe it’s CBS.
To help in this process; Here is a… Creative, interpretation of what it might have been like.

It is the 30th of October 1938.
It begins at 8:07PM, you tune into the CBS network on your Radio.
From the sounds of it, you have just tuned into the broadcast of an interview with an Astronomer in Pierceton. 

Things take a Minor turn as the Professor receives a Telegram telling of an Earthquake hitting Princeton, New York.
The Journalist asks if it has something to do with Mars. 
The Interview ends. 

The Music you’d expected to hear returns, before shortly being interrupted by a News Bulletin.
At 8:50PM in New Jersey, something struck the earth.
A meteorite has hit a farm.

Carl Phillips, a Jersey Commentator is headed to the scene.
The Music returns. For some reason you feel anxious. Is this perhaps something related to the tensions brewing in Europe? 
“We take you now to Grover’s Mill, New Jersey.” 
Oh lord, what is that Infernal noise?
“-This is Carl Phillips again, out at the Willmat farm, Grover’s Mill New Jersey.”
It’s like a combination of Wailing and Humming. You can barely concentrate on the Commentator’s words as he speaks, that strange Wail/Humm fills your mind like lead.
“-the Strange Thing before my eyes, like something out of the modern Arabian Nights.”
It’s not a Machine’s humm, it’s too Organic. 
“-haven’t had a chance to look around yet-”
Neither is it like a Police Siren’s wail, it’s too numerous, unclear and… 
“Half Buried in a Vast Pit.”
Angry.

“Must’ve struck with Terrific Force. The Ground is covered with splinters of a tree it must’ve struck on it’s way down. But I can see that The Object itself doesn’t look very much like a meteor. It’s a huge cylinder, has a diameter of… What would you say Professor Pierceson?”
The Professor from the earlier interview is there, “About 30 Yards,” he intones.
The Commentator describes it as Yellowish White. He reports that people, in spite of Police efforts, are crowding around the Object and pushing Carl Phillips around. 
Carl changes subject to talk with the Farms owner, Mr. Willmat.
Mr. Willmat begins describing the arrival of “The Object”.
He’d been listening to the Radio when he heard a Hiss, turned to look out The Window when he saw a green streak slam into the ground and knock him out of his seat from the impact.
The Commentator dismisses him. 

It strikes You like a cudgel, the Wail/Humm has changed.
Some clamour evolves on the radio but You are too occupied by the subtle shift in the sound.
Carl, The Commentator has noticed it too. 

“-It’s becoming more distinct. Perhaps, you’ve caught it already on your Radio. Listen Please.”
Grinding.
Something is grinding from inside the object. Like the sound of a Mill’s Stone.
“Do you still think it’s a Meteor Professor?”

The Professor pauses, a little too long.
“I don’t know what to think.”
He sounds… Scared?
The Professor begins to describe how The Object cannot be, but he’s interrupted.
Something, is happening. 

Carl begins to describe as the end of The Object begins to break off, and the top begins to rotate like a screw.
There is a great clamour, as a great many men scream and yell in both Anger & Fear.

They yell at each other, at Carl, at The Professor, at The Police, at The Civilian on-lookers.
And then they abruptly stop. 
A heavy silence of fear & shock hangs for a few moments.

Then it starts again, no Anger, only Fear now.
“Someone is crawling out of The Object.”
The Wail/Humm is back, more Wail than Humm now. You feel as if something very terrible is going to occur soon.

Carl lacks the words to fully describe what comes from within.
The line goes dead, as Carl must move to get into a better place than where he currently is to properly describe it.
Before the line goes quiet, he is only able to describe it in one way.
“A Monster.”
The Music Returns. 

Perhaps at this point, You (yes, You) may have realised that this was simply a Fantastical Tale of Whimsy and Peaceful Planetary Relations (You clever clogs, you). Others however, perhaps more Gullible or less Beholden to Intelligence folk, may have fallen for it.
It was, afterall, the late 30’s.

Supposedly, according to legend, the city streets of America were flooded with Panicking Civilians. People were leaping from Buildings! Mobs were swarming the streets of small towns! Families hid, cowering in Storm Cellars! People fled from New Jersey (honestly, who can blame them, it’s New Jersey) to escape the ‘Invasion’!
Except not really, but we’ll get to that later.
This panic can be traced back to 2 definitive facts. 

Firstly, the Format of the broadcast.
At the time, the format was extremely experimental. A Radio play in the form of a News Broadcast hadn’t really been done before, not en masse at least. 

So, to the people of the era, who may have for example missed the initial warning; it would not be clear that this wasn’t real.
Now this may sound silly, but the broadcast went to great lengths to establish an immersion within itself.
This means that unfortunately, they broadcast the fiction as fact for some people.
In a broader sense, this has affected Radio in the modern day.
Today, We in the Business have something called the ‘Codes of Conduct’! In which states that We have to make it explicitly clear whether something is real or not when we broadcast it.
Luckily the general public is much more adept at noticing fiction On-Air nowadays.

Secondly, the Broadcast DID NOT have enough warnings in it when it aired.
They gave a warning in the first minutes of the broadcast and didn’t have ANYTHING, for nearly 30 Minutes afterwards. All the while they replicated the format of an actual broadcasted emergency news bulletin. 

Though something really fascinating is the Response to the broadcast.

You see, at the time Radio was New. It was Shiny. It was RADICAL and It was a threat to Newspapers. 

Despite their modern status as foregone relics that mostly deal in Sunday Comics, in the early 1900’s, Newspapers were powerhouses of Journalism.
They had been the only form of Journalism for nearly a hundred years after all. 

So Imagine this:

The New Kid, Radio, is on the block and doing your Job as a Newspaper better than You are. Getting News and entertainment out to the people quicker and better and more widely available than You are.
That’s not good for Business.
Then You (yes, You) get word of how people are panicking over this one radio broadcast.
‘Aha!’ You say in your 1930’s accent, ‘We can knock them down a peg with this!’

At 8:32, one of the producers stepped out of the studio to take a phone call.
He returned looking ‘as pale as death’ and said that they’d been ordered to cease the broadcast.

This would, ironically, have made the situation worse, as (in-fiction) a Broadcaster Character had just been choked to death by Chemical Weapons, before the line went dead and the program was about to go on break.

One of the Actors, Stefen Schnabel, recalls sitting in the anteroom as a Passel of Policemen charged into the Building and attempted to forcefully cease the Broadcast, held back by Page Boys & CBS executives,  the show was able to communicate its second warning and finish. 

After the Airing of The War of The Worlds (1938) had ended the Mercury Theatre Company (who were responsible for this whole mess) got corralled away.
Here is an excerpt from ‘Run Through: A Memoir’ by John Housemann on his experiences that night:
“The following hours were a nightmare. The building was suddenly full of people and dark-blue uniforms. Hustled out of the studio, we were locked into a small back office on another floor. Here we sat incommunicado while network employees were busily collecting, destroying, or locking up all scripts and records of the broadcast. Finally, the Press was let loose upon us, ravening for horror. How many deaths had we heard of? (Implying they knew of thousands.) What did we know of the fatal stampede in a Jersey hall? (Implying it was one of many.) What traffic deaths? (The ditches must be choked with corpses.) The suicides? (Haven’t you heard about the one on Riverside Drive?) It is all quite vague in my memory and quite terrible.” 

Paul White, the (at the time) Head of CBS News was summoned to The Press’ Bombardment Chamber, where “bedlam reigned”.

There he found Orson Welles, distraught amid a Telephone Switchboard alit with more lights than a Country Night Sky.

Welles had made a simple pair of Statements: “I’m Through,” and “washed up.”
Mr. White did not bother to comment on his “highly inaccurate self appraisal”, He had to assure people that nothing was wrong, He had to take calls from as far away as The Pacific.

After leaving the CBS offices, Welles went to attend an All-Night Rehearsal of a Mercury Theatre production only to be notified, just past midnight, that there was news about his ‘War of The Worlds’ in Times Square.
On the Corner of Broadway and 42nd Street was a Large, Illuminated Sign that read:
“ORSON WELLES CAUSES PANIC”

Many Newspapers of the time took the influx of concerned calls to Police Stations, Scattered Tales of Panic (from an Uncle’s Cousin’s Friend of course), and false reports created after the ‘Panic’ became public knowledge as proof of a Mass Panic. 

Though, I think that my Favorite piece of evidence against the Mass Panic Proposal is an anecdote from Jack Paar.
He was, at the time, Announcing for WGAR (it’s not an acronym, trust me), when Concerned Callers asked if the Invasion from Mars was real.
His response was; “The world is not coming to an end. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?“

When a listener accused Jack of ‘covering up the truth’, he asked WGAR’s Station Manager for help.
He simply told Jack to calm down because; “It’s all a Tempest in a Teapot”.

Though, of course, what I’m really talking about is how Radio (and similar mediums) must be careful with how they Communicate.
It’s a lesson that’s very relevant to World Radio Day.
World Radio day is a celebration of The History of Radio. It’s a celebration of how Radio can affect the World. In the process of that, it’s also a good thing to remember a few of the mistakes we’ve made along the way. To remember why we do the things we do Today, as we do them Today. 

‘War of The Worlds (1938)’ is a Great lesson for anyone who wants to make anything. 
You can make it Real, just don’t make it too Real.