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Question: Could a War of the Worlds Redux Scare Us Silly(again)?

C

CrankyYankee

(From VOA News)

Once again on Halloween this week, when costumes were worn and spooky stories told, Americans were reminded of a Halloween eve 67 years ago, when a radio drama spread panic along the East Coast.

Could the same thing happen today?

(Read more at:)

http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2005-11-01-voa45.cfm?renderforprint=1<P ID="signature">______________
"What's That?" "French Horns!"

</P>
 
> (From VOA News)
>
> Once again on Halloween this week, when costumes were worn
> and spooky stories told, Americans were reminded of a
> Halloween eve 67 years ago, when a radio drama spread panic
> along the East Coast.
>
> Could the same thing happen today?
>
> (Read more at:)
>
>
http://www.voanews.co> m/english/AmericanLife/2005-11-01-voa45.cfm?renderforprint=1
>
Just before Halloween 1983,We played the orignal War of the Worlds.
I was on the board when a listener called and was upset about the "invasion".
She actually thought it was all for real!What can anyone say about that?
I realised very quickly,when I started in radio,that the average IQ
is not very high out there.
 
It is possible. WKBW in Buffalo did it again in '68 and in '72 and caused panic even though they made all efforts to notify the proper autorities and made sure their listeners aware that they were going to do their own version. If it could be recreated back then when radio dramas were not being done. It could still be done today. <P ID="signature">______________
In Harmony
From the Bop Shop,
Brian "BD Bopper"</P>
 
> Could the same thing happen today?

Probably not.

We're all so accustomed to hearing the threat of the day:

"New York braces for subway terror"

"Bio-terror alert for west coast cities"

"The sky is falling and taking all the flu-infested
vultures raining down on America's Cities"

So accustomed that we tune it out. Ain't nobody belives
nuttin they hear on duh radio (or see on duh telebision)
no more. Worse, if "it" isn't just media hype it's the
invention of the extreme right or the extreme right to
gain some sort of political advantage.

We're all numb. That's NUMB! Of course dumb runs a
close second.....<P ID="signature">______________
"Only sick music makes money today."
--Friedrich Nietzsch (he said this before
rap was invented, or even rock!)</P>
 
Depends on the amount of panic you want.

If you want a little panic and a few people scared silly then yes, it's easy to do. As other posters have mentioned they are gullible enough to believe a lot of things that are said on the radio. This was even being done recently in a talk radio format, where the presenter stopped the top-of-the-hour news cast with more important news (giant asteroid aimed right at London) - and people phoning in with their last moments - before it was all revealed as a hoax.

Now if you want a LOT of panic, you need to get all the media singing the same tune. All radio stations, all media - including cable & satellite TV - the Internet - all needs to be giving information about the hoax. It's too much to co-ordinate and of course if it was an elaborate hoax it'd easily slip out.

The only way to be really scary is to be the President of the United States (or some other senior government official), call an address of the nation, announce that a giant meteor is crashing toward Earth with information from Nasa etc... and then you'd have widespread panic. Then you could come out a few hours later and say it was a prank but it would completely wreck the credibility of government that way. I don't think any government would do anything as silly as that.

The reason why it was so successful in the past is that there wasn't as much mass media. There wasn't the range of radio stations there are now, there was no TV, print media isn't immediate, and basically the only means to get immediate news updates was the radio.

Mark.
 
Re: Depends on the amount of panic you want.

> If you want a little panic and a few people scared silly
> then yes, it's easy to do.

I believe it! Many eons ago at KSON, a bored news anchor created an explosive story about the death of President Eisenhower (this was while Ike was still in office). According to the PD of the day, the anchor went on the air saying something to the effect: "It's *reported* that the president has died. Stay tuned for details." Naturally, the PD in question inquired about the headline, to which the anchor replied "it was slow news day, so I thought I'd liven things up a little bit. I did say *reported*." Of course, phones were ringing off the hook all around San Diego before the story was retracted from the news.

BTW, the anchor? None other than Regis Philibin. :)
 
Re: Depends on the amount of panic you want.

Didn't we have a situation in St. Louis a while back where a morning man faked reporting about a nuclear bomb being dropped, which resulted in an FCC fine?
 
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