War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast, October 30, 1938: What Really Happened

The broadcast is one of the most retold stories in media history. The simple version says a nation believed Martians had landed and fled in terror. The record is more interesting: some listeners were briefly misled, newspapers amplified the story, and the myth outlived the evidence.

What Was Broadcast

According to Wikipedia, the live programme aired between 8 and 9 pm Eastern Time on CBS Radio as the 17th episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Howard Koch wrote the first draft, and Orson Welles directed and narrated. HISTORY describes Welles as 23 years old at the time.

The story moved the Martian invasion to Grovers Mill, New Jersey, where a meteor appeared to land in a farmer's field. After a spoken introduction and a weather report, the drama cut to dance music that was repeatedly interrupted by news-style bulletins. That realistic format was the point of the experiment.

The Disclaimers

Wikipedia says CBS announced four times during the broadcast that it was a dramatization of a work of fiction: at the beginning, before and after the middle break, and at the end. Announcements were also repeated across the network at 10:30, 11:30 and midnight that night. Listeners who tuned in late, after the opening, could miss the first one.

How Many People Panicked?

Princeton professor Hadley Cantril's 1940 study, The Invasion from Mars, estimated about 6 million listeners, 1.7 million of whom believed it was news and 1.2 million of whom were frightened or disturbed. Wikipedia reports that later researchers found his audience estimate more than twice any other at the time and his categories flawed.

A contemporary C. E. Hooper survey of 5,000 households found 2% listening to the play and none listening to a news broadcast. Historian A. Brad Schwartz concluded that the broadcast briefly misled a significant portion of its audience but that not many fled or panicked. Many reported cases, such as hospital admissions, were later found to be exaggerated or unverified.

Why the Story Grew

Within three weeks, newspapers published at least 12,500 articles about the broadcast, according to Wikipedia. Historians link the "mass panic" framing partly to newspapers competing with radio for advertising revenue.

A popular claim says many listeners had been tuned to NBC's Edgar Bergen programme and switched to CBS partway through. HISTORY repeats this, but Wikipedia says the claim is not supported and that Schwartz found no mass exodus from that show. We treat it as unproven.

What Happened Afterwards

Welles apologised at a news conference on October 31, 1938, saying he was terribly sorry. The FCC did not punish Welles or CBS, and Wikipedia adds that it barred complaints about the broadcast from being raised during licence renewals. An Iowa senator, Clyde L. Herring, proposed a bill that would have required the FCC to review programming before broadcast, but it was never introduced. In practice, the regulator took no direct action, and the episode became a lesson for broadcasters in how realistic a fictional news format can sound. HISTORY says the broadcast helped Welles win a Hollywood contract, leading to Citizen Kane in 1941. On January 27, 2003, the Library of Congress added the recording to the first 50 entries of the National Recording Registry.

Lessons for Today

The episode is often used as a case study in media literacy. The facts: a fictional programme used a news format, some people were fooled, and the exaggerated retelling spread further than the original broadcast. The same pattern appears in today's online misinformation, which is why checking a source before sharing still matters.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the War of the Worlds broadcast air?

On Sunday, October 30, 1938, live on CBS Radio at 8 pm Eastern Time.

Was there really mass panic?

Historians say no. Some listeners were misled, but panic on anything like a nationwide scale did not occur.

Was the broadcast labelled as fiction?

Yes. CBS announced four times during the broadcast that it was a dramatization.

Conclusion

The 1938 broadcast shows both the power of a convincing format and how a myth can be repeated until it replaces the facts. For other events on the same date, see our October 30, 2026 overview.