Halloween Eve is “Audio Drama Day”: a century of broadcast drama, 85 years since ‘War of the Worlds’

October 30th, 2023 marks three milestones in entertainment: the 10th Audio Drama Day, the 85th anniversary of Orson Welles’ “The War of the Worlds”, and over a century of broadcast drama series. “We’ve reached over 100 years of serial storytelling!” explains Sibby Wieland, who created the Audio Drama Day holiday to celebrate both historic radio drama and modern podcasts during the Halloween season. “Starting in late 1922 and throughout 1923, the WGY Players began a continuing drama series for broadcast – the first ever. This led to thousands of radio, television, podcast, and streaming series.”

Although other dramas may have aired on early radio, historian Elizabeth McLeod pinpointed the summer 1922 radio premiere of “The Wolf” as the primary spark that led to broadcast drama series.

“The Wolf,” a play produced by theater director Edward H. Smith over WGY Radio (Schenectady, NY) received thousands of letters and cards from listeners. In response, that fall Smith and WGY founded a new troupe of actors, producing the first series of dramas in a regular time slot.

The popularity of this new series led to the first network radio setup, as linked stations in New York City and Washington D.C. simulcast the WGY series – making WGY Players the forefather of not only the golden age of radio drama, but also network television. The WGY Players also featured in the pioneering 1928 television broadcast “The Queen’s Messenger”, an experiment presented decades before television was widely available.

“Like the Mercury Theatre’s ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast, the innovations of the WGY Players are a tangible link to content made by early podcasters, producers, and streamers today,” explains Wieland, who wrote an online history of audio drama for Acast’s Audio Fiction Week in 2021. She notes the 11th Hour Audio Challenge, a collaborative experiment for making new horror audio, embodies the initiative and creativity of WGY Players.

In 1938, “The War of the Worlds” entered into legend as a live, terrifying broadcast that sounded like real news of an alien invasion – though A. Brad Schwartz’s recent bestseller “Broadcast Hysteria” suggested that many listeners were impressed, rather than fooled.

This Halloween, live radio’s “anything can happen” spirit can also be experienced over local radio and stage performances, especially in the Pacific Northwest. In the Portland-Vancouver area on October 30th, Re-Imagined Radio presents “The War of the Worlds” as a live theatre event. This is the 10th anniversary of Re-Imagined Radio’s first live performance at the historic Kiggins Theatre, in Vancouver’s Arts District. (Doors open at 6:00 PM; tickets available at the door or online at Kiggins Theatre). The live performance will be re-broadcast on Halloween, October 31st, by community radio station KXRW-FM and later available on Re-Imagined Radio’s podcast site. On October 28th, Spokane’s Central Library and community radio station KYRS present another ghoulish delight, a live radio performance of “Plan 9 from Outer Space” at 7:30 PM Pacific Time on 88.1 and 92.3 FM, simulcast on KYRS’s website.

Wieland notes that while podcasts and audio publishers like Audible have flourished in recent years, regional groups maintained interest in audio drama when network radio drama dimmed. “More recently, the Audio Drama Directory and its associated subReddit deserve credit for helping new audio dramatists find an audience.” She adds, “Before the web, and easy access to podcast and old time radio MP3s, organizations like SPERDVAC and anthologies like Jim French’s ‘Imagination Theatre’ and Himan Brown’s ‘CBS Radio Mystery Theatre’ helped keep the flame alive.”

The first Audio Drama Day was announced at the Parsec Awards in September 2013, in anticipation of the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast in October 1938.