Subject: WAR OF THE WORLDS
Station: WKBW Buffalo, N.Y.
Date: October 31, 1973
Time: 1:25:25 (unscoped)
           1:13:02 (scoped)

It was theatre of the mind, on one of radio's biggest stages.

On Halloween Night 1973, Buffalo's 50,000-watt blowtorch WKBW did an updated version of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, about a Martian invasion of Earth. The brainchild of WKBW program director Jeff Kaye, the show faithfully followed the script of the Welles' original, but added local references and used reporting technology that did not exist in 1938, when the original aired on CBS' Mercury Theatre of the Air. The 1968 version was presented as if it were part of the station's Top 40 format, complete with the tunes. If you weren't paying attention to WKBW's numerous disclaimers, you would have thought it was real.

WKBW did the show four times, with Sandy Beach in 1968, Jack Armstrong in 1971, Shane in 1973 and Jim Quinn in 1975.

Enjoy WKBW's 1973 dramatization of H.G. Welles' "War of The Worlds" with Shane (UNSCOPED) here .

Enjoy WKBW's 1973 dramatization of H.G. Welles' "War of The Worlds" with Shane (SCOPED) here.