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Back before there were televisions and computers, there was radio. Families of the 1930s and 1940s would gather around the radio and listen to their favourite programmes such as Little Orphan Annie, Amos and Andy, The Guiding Light and the Shadow. Millions of people tuned in daily to their favourite programmes, just as we tune into our favourite television shows. Radio allowed the listener to create their own images of characters and settings, a luxury that we no longer have in these days of television.
BBC Radio Drama
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 7
Balance Publishing
Task:
Using the links above answer the following questions:
1) How old is Radio Drama?
2) When did Radio Drama reach its peak?
3) What did networks start doing in 1927?
4) What happened in the 1930s?
5) What effect did the war have on the Radio?
6) What effect did Radio Drama have on the early years of TV?
7) Does Radio Drama still exist in the UK? Where? What types of other programmes do these radio stations broadcast? Name 5 Radio Dramas broadcast in Britain today.
BBC Radio Drama
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 7
Balance Publishing
Task:
Using the links above answer the following questions:
1) How old is Radio Drama?
2) When did Radio Drama reach its peak?
3) What did networks start doing in 1927?
4) What happened in the 1930s?
5) What effect did the war have on the Radio?
6) What effect did Radio Drama have on the early years of TV?
7) Does Radio Drama still exist in the UK? Where? What types of other programmes do these radio stations broadcast? Name 5 Radio Dramas broadcast in Britain today.
WAR OF THE WORLDS
WOW, an early American radio play, caused a great deal of confusion and panic when the audience misread the radio programme as non-fiction, rather than fiction. Read the information and watch the clips to find out more!
The Programme, broadcast from the 20th floor at 485 Madison Avenue (in New York City), started with a short introduction to the intentions of the aliens, and noted that the adaptation was set in 1939. The programme continued as an apparently ordinary music show, only occasionally interrupted by news flashes. Initially, the news is of strange explosions sighted on Mars.
Many people missed or ignored the opening credits of the programme, and in the atmosphere of growing tension and anxiety in the days leading up to World War II, took it to be a news broadcast. Contemporary newspapers reported that panic ensued, with people fleeing the area, and others thinking they could smell the poison gas or could see the flashes of the lightening in the distance.
The author Richard J. Hand cites studies by unnamed historians who "calculate[d] that some six million people heard the Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast; 1.7 million believed it to be true, and 1.2 million were 'genuinely frightened'". (Hand, 7) While Welles and company were heard by a comparatively small audience (Bergen's audience was an estimated 30 million), the uproar that followed was anything but minute: within a month, there were about 12,500 newspaper articles about the broadcast or it's impact (Hand,7), while Adolf Hitler cited the panic, as Hand writes, as "evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy."
The news reports grew more frequent and increasingly ominous after a "meteorite" - later revealed as a Martian rocket capsule - lands in New Jersey. A crowd gathers at the landing site, and the events are related by reporter 'Carl Philips' until the Martians incinerate curious onlookers with their "Heat - Rays". (Later surveys indicate that many listeners heard only this portion of the show before contacting neighbors or family to inquire about the broadcast. Many of these people contacted others, in turn; leading to rumors and later confusion.)
More Martian ships land, and the proceed to wreak havoc throughout the United States, destroying bridges and railroads, and spraying a poison gas into the air. An unnamed Secretary of the Interior advises the nation on the growing conflict. (The "Secretary" was originally intended to be a portrayal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then President, but CBS insisted this detail, among others, be changed. The "Secretary" did, however, sound very much like Roosevelt as the result of directions given to actor Kenny Delmar by Welles.)
Many of these listeners were apparently confused. In fairness, it must be noted that the confusion cannot be credited entirely to naivety. Though many of the actors' voices should have been recognisable from appearances on other radio shows, nothing like the WOW broadcast had ever been attempted in the United States, so listeners were accustomed to accepting newsflashes as reliable.
Newspapers reported the panic the next day and as usual the media hyped up the story, bringing even greater strength to the story which some say is an urban myth!
Introductory Task:
Using the information provided in this section, write a magazine article for a modern day publication explaining the events that have just beeen described to you.
Consider : Audience reaction, why did some of the audience react in the way they did? Why was radio drama such a powerful medium?
WOW, an early American radio play, caused a great deal of confusion and panic when the audience misread the radio programme as non-fiction, rather than fiction. Read the information and watch the clips to find out more!
The Programme, broadcast from the 20th floor at 485 Madison Avenue (in New York City), started with a short introduction to the intentions of the aliens, and noted that the adaptation was set in 1939. The programme continued as an apparently ordinary music show, only occasionally interrupted by news flashes. Initially, the news is of strange explosions sighted on Mars.
Many people missed or ignored the opening credits of the programme, and in the atmosphere of growing tension and anxiety in the days leading up to World War II, took it to be a news broadcast. Contemporary newspapers reported that panic ensued, with people fleeing the area, and others thinking they could smell the poison gas or could see the flashes of the lightening in the distance.
The author Richard J. Hand cites studies by unnamed historians who "calculate[d] that some six million people heard the Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast; 1.7 million believed it to be true, and 1.2 million were 'genuinely frightened'". (Hand, 7) While Welles and company were heard by a comparatively small audience (Bergen's audience was an estimated 30 million), the uproar that followed was anything but minute: within a month, there were about 12,500 newspaper articles about the broadcast or it's impact (Hand,7), while Adolf Hitler cited the panic, as Hand writes, as "evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy."
The news reports grew more frequent and increasingly ominous after a "meteorite" - later revealed as a Martian rocket capsule - lands in New Jersey. A crowd gathers at the landing site, and the events are related by reporter 'Carl Philips' until the Martians incinerate curious onlookers with their "Heat - Rays". (Later surveys indicate that many listeners heard only this portion of the show before contacting neighbors or family to inquire about the broadcast. Many of these people contacted others, in turn; leading to rumors and later confusion.)
More Martian ships land, and the proceed to wreak havoc throughout the United States, destroying bridges and railroads, and spraying a poison gas into the air. An unnamed Secretary of the Interior advises the nation on the growing conflict. (The "Secretary" was originally intended to be a portrayal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then President, but CBS insisted this detail, among others, be changed. The "Secretary" did, however, sound very much like Roosevelt as the result of directions given to actor Kenny Delmar by Welles.)
Many of these listeners were apparently confused. In fairness, it must be noted that the confusion cannot be credited entirely to naivety. Though many of the actors' voices should have been recognisable from appearances on other radio shows, nothing like the WOW broadcast had ever been attempted in the United States, so listeners were accustomed to accepting newsflashes as reliable.
Newspapers reported the panic the next day and as usual the media hyped up the story, bringing even greater strength to the story which some say is an urban myth!
Introductory Task:
Using the information provided in this section, write a magazine article for a modern day publication explaining the events that have just beeen described to you.
Consider : Audience reaction, why did some of the audience react in the way they did? Why was radio drama such a powerful medium?
