Yeah, I loved it but I'm still not sure how people believed it was "real". Unless they turned it on listed for 5 minutes, then turned it off. There were plenty of 'warnings' that it wasn't real.
According to the Wiki entry there were only "three" warnings. At the start, at 40 minutes and 55 minutes.
Apparently there was a more popular radio broadcast playing on another station. When that broadcast had a commercial break, listeners began turning their dials to find something else in the meantime. Wells knew this and timed his broadcast so that these listeners would come in during the first Grover's Mill report. Some listeners came in just as the "Martians" emerge from their spacecraft.
However the entry also states that the widespread panic has been exaggerated as to how many people actually believed Martians had landed and the level of fear that had been created. Most people just called the authorities and didn't riot in the streets. Some believed the Germans had
invaded.
Given the atmosphere at the time (a year before WWII), I can understand the fear this radio drama created.
I actually witnessed a similar thing happen with a made for tv movie called "Special Bulletin." This was an early 80s fictional Newsroom broadcast done in real time in the same vein as WOTW. The plot revolved around American terrorists who threatened to detonate a nuclear bomb aboard a docked tugboat in a harbour of Charleston, SC. The entire film is done from the perspective of the Newsroom, with on the scene reporters who even manage to interview the terrorists (who are doing this in the name of Worldwide nuclear disarmament).
The film's climax is the tugboat being stormed by a Delta team and the terrorists being killed, however one terrorist starts the countdown before committing suicide. Depsite efforts to disarm the bomb, it detonates destroying the harbour and much of Charleston.
In spite of there being several warnings during commercial breaks and including the word "Dramatization" superimposed on screen during key moments, many people called the authorities and loved ones in Charleston.
I myself watched this movie when it was repeated on television with some friends. One friend 100% believed it was really happening (mind you we were just teenagers back then).
Kevin