[78-L] Panic..or myth? (Hey, it was 73 years ago tonight, too)

[Elizabeth McLeod]

on 10/31/11 10:58 AM Donna Halper wrote:  
>
>And many who did not panic lived here in Boston.  The reason was 
>simple:  our local CBS affiliate, WEEI, did not air the Mercury Theater 
>that night, preferring instead to broadcast a locally produced special.  
>People had to try to pull in the station in Providence that carried the 
>program.  Some evidently did, but for the most part, it was a non-event 
>in Boston.

CBS had very poor penetration in New England in 1938, and most of the 
affliiates it did have were low-powered stations. Even WEEI was only a 
5000 watt station with extremely spotty reception north of the city 
itself. The only Maine CBS affiliate was WLBZ in Bangor -- a thousand 
watt outlet on the low end of the dial which was often impossible to tune 
in thirty miles from the tower. Unless they wanted to try their luck 
pulling in WABC or WCAU, for an awful lot of people CBS didn't even exist.

My grandparents had no idea what I was talking about when I asked them if 
they remembered "War Of The Worlds." Not only that, they had only the 
barest awareness of who Orson Welles was. I think modern people tend to 
take for granted the idea that everyone has access to all forms of media 
and popular culture, and assume that what they themselves think is 
important is important to everyone else. But in 1938, it was a very very 
different world.

Elizabeth