What really happened during Orson Welles’ ‘War of the Worlds’ radio broadcast

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.