Cranks, Crack-pots, and Martians On October 30, 1938, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) broadcast an adaptation of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. The hour-long radio program began with an announcer introducing a musical performance and moments later interrupting with a special news bulletin describing the landing of Martians in New Jersey and their subsequent attacks with death rays. Although CBS made four announcements during the broadcast identifying it as a dramatic performance, millions of Americans who heard it were scared into some sort of action, many wrote letters. The newly created Federal Communications Commission received more than 600 letters about the broadcast, including the one featured here.
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Cranks, Crack-pots, and Martians

On October 30, 1938, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) broadcast an adaptation of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. The hour-long radio program began with an announcer introducing a musical performance and moments later interrupting with a special news bulletin describing the landing of Martians in New Jersey and their subsequent attacks with death rays. Although CBS made four announcements during the broadcast identifying it as a dramatic performance, millions of Americans who heard it were scared into some sort of action, many wrote letters. The newly created Federal Communications Commission received more than 600 letters about the broadcast, including the one featured here.

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“…coming to you from Berlin and the German Overseas Service…”

Berlin Broadcast to Allied Forces, 07/27/1944

This sound recording of a Berlin broadcast to Allied forces contained the war news report “Surpassing the Enemy’s Head Start” by Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels; “Home Sweet Home” read by a Nazi commentator; and a program consisting of American music and comments by “Midge,” Mildred Elizabeth Gillars, an American citizen dubbed “Axis Sally” by the American military.