Radiolab
Could It Happen Again? (And Again?)
We take an in depth look at a War of the Worlds radio play incident with even more dire consequences. In 1949, when Radio Quito decided to translate the Orson Welles stunt for an Equadorian audience, no one knew that the result would be a riot that burned down the radio station and killed at least 7 people. Reporter Tony Field takes us to Quito to finds out what really happened. But we’d hardly have decided to dedicate an hour to this if it was only a two-time occurence. That’s right: it happens again. This time it’s in the 1960s in Buffalo, NY. Why does this keep happening? We talk to psychology professor Richard Gerrig who tells us that the answer may have to do with our natural response to stories.
Read More about the Quito Panic
Once More? Try Chile
Hear Buffalo's WKBW Version
Do Martians Disco? The Jeff Wayne Version
Richard Gerrig at Stony Brook University
Enjoyed your show about "War of the Worlds". For your information, there was another updated broadcast of this famous radio drama. In 1965, a radio station in San Francisco broadcast a story about some strange object landing at the Berkeley Flats, a tidal fringe of SF Bay. And, I fell for it. Was quite scared, matter of fact.
The broadcast consisted entirely of reports from the field, describing how this "craft" was seen from the Bay Bridge and the orange glow in the night sky. I was living in San Leandro, south of Oakland, and went out looking at the sky for this glow. I should have caught on when no other station in the area was broadcasting anything about this, but I didn't. I don't remember how the whole issue resolved itself, but I do remember being taken in completely.
When I was a kid, my father played for me a recording of War of the Worlds as produced in the 1970's by the BBC that featured Richard Burton and music by the Moody Blues.
I was scared to death by this recording, the music was so haunting, I just had to listen to it over and over. Eventually I could have sworn that I saw lights over the city, that there were large 3 legged martian machines roaming downtown manhattan and quickly headed under the covers. I figured, if it's real, I'm a cinder from that heat ray, if I lie here and live... my mind is playing tricks on me.
Great Show!
C.
This was a extremely insightful program. One of my memories of "War of the Worlds is that delightful "snippet" in Woody Allen's Radio Days when the couple in the car where the program.
The 1953 motion picture's sound track has a sort of unique distinction in the history of sound effects. The "sound" created when the first capsule opens in the farmer's field was created by unscrewing a Mason jar inside of a commode.
Great show! A good one not mentioned was "Special Bulletin," the 1983 made-for-TV movie shot on video tape. It was about a group of home-grown terrorist who make nuclear device and tries black mail the US Government. A lot of people thought it was real. Remember that one?
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