Post by Eagle on Oct 30, 2014 23:34:22 GMT -5
YouTube WKBW's War of the Worlds:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-oTTyGOkIg&noredirect=1
WKBW's 1968 "WAR OF THE WORLDS"
by Bob Kosinski
www.buffalobroadcasters.com/hist_kbwow.asp
Buffalo radio has had many classic moments over the years but it’s tough to top Halloween night, 1968, as WKBW aired it’s version of H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds. This classic Halloween radio production has grown in stature, especially over the past ten years, receiving national attention. KB’s War of The Worlds has been featured in several books, national articles and on numerous radio collection web sites.
It all began in the fall of 1968 and the approaching 30th anniversary of Orson Welles classic radio dramatization of H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel. KB Program Director Jefferson Kaye had planned to update a local version of War of the Worlds as a tribute to that 1938 classic. Welles had made history with his Mercury Theatre on the air broadcast which had caused panic and had become the most famous radio broadcast of all time. In an attempt to recreate a similar broadcast, Kaye had no idea what he was getting into and how far reaching the effects would be.
WKBW was a giant at the time, a 50,000-watt AM powerhouse that could be heard along the Eastern Seaboard at night. KB was already known for its creative Halloween night specials and the original stories produced by Kaye and Danny Neaverth, but War of the Worlds was a much bigger undertaking....
