We Interrupt This Broadcast Brian Williams

“War of The Worlds” is a phenomenon of a bygone era, and of a medium a hundred years old, yet its lessons resonate to this day. It’s the original “deepfake of 1938.” A radio drama about an alien invasion but presented as “breaking news,” scared the daylights out the nation. On the evening of October 30, 1938, radio listeners across the U.S. heard a startling report of mysterious creatures and terrifying war machines moving toward New York City. But the hair-raising broadcast was not a real news bulletin—it was Orson Welles' adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic. This episode goes behind the scenes of the making of Welles' famed radio play and its impact. Welles's broadcast became a major scandal, prompting a different kind of mass panic as Americans debated the bewitching power of the radio and the country's vulnerability in a time of crisis. When the debate was over, American broadcasting had changed for good, but not for the better.

Written by Joe Garner and Brian Williams

Contributors:

A.Brad Schwartz, broadcast historian and author of BROADCAST HYSTERIA: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News (Hill & Wang, May 2015)

Orson Welles

Howard Koch

John Houseman

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Pandemonium reigned in downtown Dallas on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. An assassin's bullet had murdered President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Within an hour, police had arrested their lead suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and accomplished sharpshooter. On Sunday morning, November 24, with TV cameras in place, and NBC airing it live, Oswald was led through the department's basement for transport to the county jail. And, for the first time, the nation watched an historic national news event - as it happened.

Written by Joe Garner and Brian Williams

Contributors:

Gary DeLaune, formally a reporter for KLIF Radio Dallas

Bill Lord, formerly a producer for ABC News

Ike Pappas, formerly a reporter for WNEW Radio New York

Bob Huffaker, formerly a reporter for KRLD Radio and television and the CBS affiliate in Dallas

Fred Rheinstein, formerly the field director for NBC News

Chad Hagan, formerly a producer for NBC News

Homer Vinso, formerly a cameraman for NBC News

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The Space Shuttle Challenger flew nine missions into space. But its fateful tenth mission, which lasted only 73 seconds, ensured its tragic place in history. On the morning of January 28, 1986, a crew of seven boarded the Challenger, including a New Hampshire grade school teacher named Christa McAuliffe, representing the aspirations of so-called ‘ordinary’ citizens to journey into space. It was an adventure vicariously shared by millions of Americans through television, as the Challenger lifted off at 11:38a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and hurtled majestically into the sky. But less than two minutes later, horror struck in full view of all who watched.

 

Contributors:

John Zarrella, former CNN Miami Bureau Chief

Tony Clark, former national correspondent for CNN

Beth O’Connell, former coordinator for the NBC Boston Bureau

William Harwood, CBS News space analyst

Steve Nesbitt, the voice of NASA Mission Control

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He was an extraordinarily gifted athlete, the premier football player of his time, a California golden child who emerged from abject poverty to win the Heisman trophy in college and set records as a pro football running back. Effortless grace and a ready smile eased his transition from ex-athlete to corporate-backed celebrity. All of that changed on the night of June 13, 1992, when his ex-wife Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, were found brutally murdered. Evidence gleaned from the murder site suggested that her executioner may well have been O.J. Simpson. But when police decided to arrest Simpson two days later, an even more surreal tableaux unfolded - live on national television in front of 95-million viewers. 

 

Contributors:

Hannah Zoey Tur, an independent helicopter reporter in Los Angeles.

Carl Stein, video journalist for KCBS, Channel 2 in Los Angeles

Diane Dimond, the investigative crime reporter for the television show Hard Copy

Steve Futterman, Los Angeles-based reporter for CBS News Radio.

 

Broadcast audio licensed from:

NBC News

ABC News

Los Angeles News Service

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On April 19, 1995, two years to the day following the U.S. government’s botched raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, a rented truck pulled to the curb in front of the nine story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Inside the building, about 500 federal employees, and several hundred visitors were beginning their workday.  Then, at 9:04 a.m., came the explosion which would alter the American social and political landscape.

 

Contributors:

Jerry Bohnen, former KTOK News director

David Bohrman, former executive producer of special events for NBC News

Beth O’Connell, former Senior Producer, Today Show

Stewart Dan, former Chicago-based producer, Today Show

Tony Clark, former Dallas Bureau Chief and CNN Correspondent

Trace Ready, former CNN cameraman

Chris Hansen, Investigative news reporter

Stephanie Becker, former Los Angeles-based producer, NBC

 

Broadcast audio licensed from CNN/WarnerMedia, CBS News, NBC News.

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The Hindenburg was an engineering masterpiece, an airship as large and as grand as the Titanic - and as doomed. On May 6, 1937, a young radio reporter named Herbert Morrison was on hand to record the Hindenburg’s arrival at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Instead, Morrison helped radio to broadcast one of modern history’s great disasters, as it suddenly unfolded in all its terrible glory. But even as Morrison’s eyewitness report chronicled the end of one era, it signaled the beginning of another - an age in which electronic media would routinely report shocking events in the moment that they occurred. In addition to the story of the Hindenburg, this serves as a preview of Season 1.

Broadcast audio courtesy of Marc Garabedian, Mark 56 Records

Contributors: Herbert MorrisonDr. Michael Biel, renowned broadcast historian.Mike Freedman, President of National Press Club, Professor at GWU –Don Hewitt, former CBS News producer (Garner Audio Archive)Aaron Brown, former CNN anchor(Garner Audio Archive)John Montone, former reporter for 1010 WINS Radio, New York


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