The broadcast, its subsequent re-airings and remakes, and multiple airings alongside the original 1938 radio drama made Buffalo, New York the War of the Worlds Radio Capital of The World in a 2009 resolution by the New York State Senate[1] WKBW program director Jefferson Kaye, a big fan of the original Orson Welles version from three decades earlier, wondered what The War of the Worlds would sound like if it was made using up-to-date (for 1968) radio news equipment, covering the "story" of a Martian invasion.
Until this point, most radio renditions of the 1938 broadcast were simply script re-readings with different actors or had minor variations to account for significantly different geographical locations.
Kaye decided to disregard the original script entirely, move the action to Grand Island, New York, and use actual WKBW disc jockeys and news reporters as actors.
The initial part of the broadcast alternated from top-40 hits to news break-ins and back until 11:30 ET when continuous reportage and worsening situations on the ground take over.
Among those fooled included a local newspaper, several small-town police officers, and even the Canadian military, which dispatched troops to the Peace Bridge.
[citation needed] The Air Force Base (ADC) attached to the Niagara Falls International Airport received several dozen calls from concerned citizens (Is there an alert?, invasion?, Are we under attack?
However, at four minutes before midnight, Jefferson Kaye interrupted the taped events to give this disclaimer, but not until after he threatened director Danny Kriegler that he would rip the still-playing tape off its machine and run along Buffalo's Main Street with it if he was not allowed to break in, as the number of calls received by the station from frightened listeners were getting out of hand:[2] What you are listening to is a dramatization of H.G.
1973: Shane "The Cosmic Cowboy" was the opening DJ and the rest of the broadcast was identical to the version two years earlier albeit with Ron Baskin added as newscaster.
1978: Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the original Orson Welles' radio drama, KSEI in Pocatello, Idaho adopted the 1971 WKBW version for their own staging of "The War of the Worlds", using their news department personnel.
Kaye and Weinstein (in one of his last appearances before his retirement at the end of that year) reprised their respective roles in the original, while personalities such as Don Postles, Larry Norton, Erie County Executive Dennis Gorski and Mayor Anthony Masiello participated.