Editor's Remarks: The Golden Years, Then and Now

Abstract

I begin this issue with the first lines from Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News by A. Brad Schwartz (2015, p. 3) who began this book project as part of his senior thesis, and eventually it landed a spot on a PBS series. Schwartz’s investigation into what happened Halloween Eve October 30, 1938 is based in part on 1,400 listener letters donated in 2005 to the University of Michigan. These letters and accompanying research provided a more accurate portrait of that night. It became obvious that media reports had been overblown, creating the urban legend that still exists today. It was media’s increasing power, not Martians, that stirred public fear of radio in retrospect. The Golden Age of Radio was in its heyday. Listeners wrote of their imagined bonds between them and favorite actors and characters in their letters. Schwartz (p. 10) states, ‘‘Listeners treated the voices they welcomed into their homes each week as if they were friends, familiars, confessors.’’ That ability to connect to listeners remains a significant thread of discussion in much of the research presented here, as we move from Grover’s Mill to Night Vale across 77 years. Both real to the listener.