The War of the Worlds: The Biggest Event in the History of Media

On the evening of October 30, 1938, the American radio station CBS Radio Network broadcast a one-act drama. The drama in question: an adaptation of English novelist H.G. Wells’s 1898 novel about a Martian invasion, The War of the Worlds.

    The play was adapted, directed, and narrated by a young twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles (1915–1985), who would later become one of the greatest figures in American film and radio history. Welles, who wanted to give the drama a feeling of realism for the upcoming Halloween celebrations, changed the setting of the work from nineteenth-century England to twentieth-century America.

    The broadcast started at 8 p.m. Eastern time to the sound of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concert No. 1. The music then faded to an announcer’s voice: “Ladies and gentlemen: the director of the Mercury Theatre and the star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles.” While this introduction clearly stated the fictional nature of the performance, the regular program of the broadcast was seemingly interrupted when a voice urgently announced that Martians had invaded Earth. It went on to say that they had landed in the farmlands of New Jersey and destroyed important infrastructure. There were lines of refugees, it said, and America was in chaos.

    New York listeners of the broadcast, hearing the terrifying words Martians and invasion were apparently thrown into panic. Concerned and confused callers jammed CBS’s phone lines, and police swarmed their studio. The next day, the front page of the New York Times retold the previous night’s pandemonium. The broadcast caused so much commotion that over the next three weeks, more than 12,500 articles were written about it.

    Welles, of course, had no choice but to make a formal apology at a press conference. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it lifted the then-unknown Welles to stardom, even landing him a contract with a large film company that saw his potential as a director. Three years later in 1941, he wrote, directed, and acted in his own movie: Citizen Kane. In fact, Citizen Kane is still considered by some critics as the greatest movie of all time.

Radio Drama: A Declining Business

But a long time has passed since the age of radio, which once boasted great popularity. After the peak of its Golden Age, radio as a genre continued to decline rapidly. One reason for this was that costs far outweighed profits, which itself was a result of low listenership. This phenomenon could be seen in Korea and throughout the world. In fact, even on the BBC, radio drama was dropped from regular programming long ago.

    Within Korea, there are hardly any broadcast stations outside the KBS that produce radio dramas. Relying on government funding, KBS Hanminjok Radio has become the main producer of radio dramas in Korea. Clearly, radio drama is one of those rare, nearly extinct breeds that hardly registers on our radar anymore.

    Within this trend, or perhaps against it, I have been producing radio dramas. Specifically, I dramatize short stories. Think of it like Orson Welles’s dramatic adaption of The War of the Worlds. It’s taken dozens of years to get to this point. The name of the program I produce is Radio Munhakgwan (Radio Literary Theatre). Previously, there was a television program called TV Munhakgwan—you could call what I do the radio version of that. Of course, it’s been more than a decade since TV Munhakgwan was taken off the air. It garnered poor viewership, so advertisers eventually lost interest. Taking this into account, you could say that not only has the age of drama passed, but the age of literature as a whole has passed, too.

    Then why, given all this, do I produce a radio drama program based on works of little-read literature, especially when radio dramas are performed with just the voice and no video? Perhaps our program’s mission statement is the best way to answer this question: “A long-running radio show devoted to creating a society that reads. Come, meet Korean literature through drama and experience books with your ears.” In short, I do it because it’s a program that contributes to the making of a society that reads books.

Producing and Rehearsing Shows

The first step in producing a show is to choose a work of fiction. While we sometimes adapt novellas, most times we go with short stories. Once we’ve made our decision, we contact the author and the publisher to procure the rights. But often the publisher won’t allow it. Major publishers are frequently reluctant to grant us the necessary rights to adapt the work. After all, it’s their source of income, too. Because of this, we often cannot go through with the programs we want.

    If, however, we manage to procure the rights,the next step is for the screenwriter to adapt the original work into something we can use on air. The process is similar, though not identical, to what Welles did with The War of the Worlds. The most important question during this stage of the process is how can we efficiently convey the meaning of the work within the allotted time, while also preserving as much of the original as possible? The most efficient method is what we call “dramatization.” We can’t just read the book in its entirety—that would be an audiobook. Nor do we turn the book into a full-fledged drama—that’s what TV Munhakgwan did. Radio, as a mass medium, possesses its own quirks, and there is a need to preserve these. The most salient feature of radio is its particular blend of narration and dialogue.

    When the script is finished, we need to find the voice actor who best fits the content, and who can skillfully assimilate the narration and the lead role. We hire a freelance voice actor for this,while casting in-house voice actors from KBS for the remaining characters(in-house KBS voice actors work exclusively for the company for a period of two years). Once the roles are decided, everyone gets together in a room for a script reading. We do this every Wednesday during the day.

    Once the rehearsal begins, there’s always a bit of excitement and tension in the air. On the one hand, people are either meeting for the first time or reuniting, sometimes after not seeing each another for a long time. On the other hand, there’s a complicated sense of both angst and responsibility that each actor feels regarding his or her part. And,of course, there’s always going to be differences in interpretation between the producer, scriptwriter, and voice actors.

    Unintentional bloopers always break the tension in the room, which is often so thick you could cut it with a knife, and turn it into a sea of laughter. In that way, bloopers, or “NG” as they’re known in Korea (an acronym for “no good”), are actually very good because they act like a tonic or lubricant to the proceedings—the aesthetic of bloopers, if you will.Quirky acting by the voice actors, which isn’t always a bad thing, also produces a similar effect. Such situations are always a lot of fun for both me and the cast.

Finishing Rehearsal and Entering Production

After we rehearse the script, we move to the studio and begin the production. The signal is given, the introductory comments are read to the accompaniment of music, and then the narrated acting begins in earnest. The light-hearted atmosphere from earlier ends, and we all get serious as we focus on the acting and become immersed in the story. With the addition of music spanning a whole spectrum of emotions, literature aurally transforms into moving people and dynamic situations.

    Most important during the production are the effects. Unlike Orson Welles, who didn’t use music or sound effects during the broadcast to amplify realism, we use effects to increase the theatrical atmosphere of the drama. It’s not TV, so we only have sound to work with.Because of this, music and sound effects are some of the only ways to increase the realism of the production and enhance its delivery. In fact, it was precisely such effects that made me connect so intimately with a drama production I saw a few years back while on a business trip to the BBC.

    Effects can be split into two categories: those that are prepared and recorded beforehand, and those that are created on the spot during the actual recording. As an example of the former, we use pre-recorded sounds that evoke the feeling of a rainstorm or a blizzard. As an example of the latter, simple sound effects like the sound of footsteps or a door are created at the studio in real time. Because of this, the sound effects team is much larger and busier than the music production team. When you put all this together—narration, acting, music, sound effects—a work of fiction transforms from something you read with your eyes to something you experience with your ears. It is reborn as a living, breathing character that jumps off the pages of a book.

    The consumption of literature in Korea, where people are especially sucked into the deep abyss that is the modern smartphone,is almost nonexistent. And yet, every day, there are more and more books being put on shelves. Similarly, it’s been decades since radios were pushed out of the living room, made obsolete by television. Nonetheless, literature and radio are now meeting to create an unexpected trend. The birth and spread of a new market: audiobooks. This may be the fruit of Radio Munhakgwan’s efforts to create a society that reads books. Considering the fact that there are a surprising number of listeners to Radio Munhakgwan, I would say this is more than just a hopeful hunch.

Fiction: Textbook of Life and Survival Wisdom

Fiction excites the masses. The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series are great examples. The reason the masses read fiction is because it’s entertaining. To put it another way, no one reads fiction to learn life lessons. And yet, fiction is littered with lessons. They even contain survival wisdom. According to William Somerset Maugham, fiction writers hide messages in stories like doctors hide powdered medicine in sweet jam. Because of this,people who don’t read fiction are sometimes unable to cope with life crises and may fall behind in the race for survival.

    In Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the protagonist Tess suffers from injustice in society and struggles for her rights and dignity as a young woman. In one telling scene, Tess reprimands her mother for never having encouraged her to read a single book. And then you have Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens, who argues that Homo sapiens were able to defeat Neanderthals, who were much stronger and had more evolved brains, to become the ancestors of modern humans because of their ability to create fiction. This is all to say that works of literature, particularly fiction, are survival textbooks—guidebooks filled with necessary lessons for living in a harsh world. And this is why we read novels.

The Importance of Audio Media like Radio Munhakgwan

I spent many years directing and producing the program Soseol Geukjang (Novel Theatre). Unlike Radio Munhakgwan, which dramatizes short works of fiction, Soseol Geukjang creates audiobooks from novels without any adaption. I’ve also published my own book of essays, The Boy at the End of the World Who Became a Producer, and also created audio clips for the book. At the time, I didn’t officially release the audio clips, but it was well received by those close to me.

    Through the many years I spent producing Soseol Geukjang, publishing my book, and creating audio clips, I have had the opportunity to witness people—who for whatever reason found it hard to read books, be it from poor eyesight or because they got sucked into other forms of media—falling in love again with the world of books and literature. It was an important chance to think about the purpose of audiobooks as a form of media distinct from traditional books, as well as an opportunity to better understand the genre and the trade.

    Perhaps that’s why the program Radio Munhakgwan is so important to me, and why I’m so certain it means something to our listeners. It is why I’m confident that I’m doing meaningful work with my team of narrators, voice actors, writers,musicians, and sound designers. Even though I may not be the next Orson Welles,I can at least be proud that I am contributing to the making of a society that reads.

Translated by Sean Lin Halbert

Kim Byoung Jin is a department head at the KBS Radio 1 and Cool FM stations of KBS radio, visiting scholar at Towson University, and adjunct professor at Sangmyung University. He is also an essayist and has authored the book The Boy from Ttangkkeut Who Became a Producer (gasse, 2021).

<라디오문학관>을 말한다

매스미디어 역사상 가장 큰 해프닝으로 기록된 <우주전쟁>

  1938년 10월 30일 일요일 저녁, 미국 CBS 라디오는 한 편의 단막극을 방송했다. 1898년 영국 소설가 허버트 조지 웰스(H.G Wells)가 출간한 공상과학소설 『우주전쟁(The War of the Worlds)』을 각색한 작품으로 화성인의 지구 침공을 담은 내용이었다. 작품의 제작과 연출은 물론 내레이션까지 맡은 사람은 23세의 젊은 천재 연출가 오슨 웰스(Orson Wells, 1915~1985)였다. 핼러윈(Halloween) 데이를 맞아 좀 더 실감 나는 드라마를 제작하고 싶었던 웰스는 시간적·공간적 배경을 원작의 19세기 영국에서 20세기 미국의 실제 지명으로 바꿨다. 방송은 8시 정각에 시작됐다. 드라마에서는 처음 차이콥스키 피아노 콘체르토 작품 1번이 흘러나왔다. 이윽고 “여러분은 지금 허버트 조지 웰스의 『우주전쟁』을 각색한 오슨 웰스의 드라마를 듣고 계십니다.”라는 멘트가 들려왔다. 사실이 아닌 픽션임을 분명히 밝힌 것이다. 그러던 드라마에서는 다음과 같이 급박하고 심각한 멘트가 이어졌다.