It was 65 years ago today that radio listeners heard War of the Worlds. It's funny to listen to this recording in the context of today's information age. Would it be possible this kind of show to succeed today, or in the future? On one hand, I think it wouldn't work because we have so many media sources that it would be extremely difficult to pull off without a huge coordinated effort. But who knows? It might be fun to re-record a modern version of War of the Worlds in normal speaking voices, and try to broadcast it across the country or even just within a large metropolitan area. Now that I think about it, I could see somebody taking over a local radio station and broadcasting some crazy story. You're bound to trick at least part of the audience.

This site has various recorded versions of the original broadcast of the show, including this link to a RealAudio stream. Check it out, it's an hour long. The academic description of the "heat ray" is one of the funniest things I've ever heard.