A history of audio storytelling: 10 seminal moments and timeless formats
Today in my audio class at the University of Oregon, we walked through some key moments in the history of audio storytelling. Here’s what we listened to:
1. Orson Welles — War Of The Worlds (1938)
As David Webb, who uploaded this to YouTube notes:
The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated “news bulletins”, which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a ‘sustaining show’ (it ran without commercial breaks), thus adding to the program’s quality of realism. Although there were sensationalist accounts in the press about a supposed panic in response to the broadcast, the precise extent of listener response has been debated. In the days following the adaptation, however, there was widespread outrage. The program’s news-bulletin format was decried as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading…
