- Hybrid Radio form
- War of the Worlds was a novel published in 1989 by H.G Wells. In 1938, it was adapted into a radio drama directed and narrated by Orson Welles for CBS Radio Network (Columbia Broadcasting Company)
- 1930’s/40’s = The ‘Golden Age’ of Radio
- The ‘War of the Worlds’ episode was the 17th episode in the ‘The Mercury Theatre on the Air’ series in which Orson Welles transformed a series of classic literature into radio dramas.
Evidence
- Interruption in broadcast (39.30 mins) – News goes silent
- “We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man’s”
Institution
CBS Radio Network:
- ‘CBS Radio Network’ is owned by ‘Paramount Global’ (a “multinational mass media conglomerate”) through horizontal integration.
- ‘Paramount Global’ was formed in 2019 as a product of the merging between CBS Cooperation and Viacom.
Audience
“Radio listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact”
Regulation
- In the 1930’s, Radio was regulated by the Federal Communications Commission