The War of the World

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In the Orson Welles' version, there are reports about unusual explosions on Mars. The next day, newspapers reported that people who had heard the broadcast had panicked. Some media historians have pointed out that the War of the World broadcast couldn't possibly produced as much panic as newspapers reported because there weren't enough people listening.

On a Saturday night, in February 1949, the music programming on one of the most popular radio stations in Quito, Ecuador, was interrupted with an urgent news bulletin: strange objects in the sky that looked like large disks with bright lights were using a powerful ray to destroy a nearby city. And they were heading right for Quito.

Thanks to Lisette Arévalo for sharing her tape and her reporting. In 2020, she reported this story for the Spanish-language podcast Radio Ambulante – it’s called “The Extraterrestrials.” You can listen at https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/the-extraterrestrials.

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