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In This Issue
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The ‘Panic Broadcast’ 75 Years Later
WHAV Continues Election Coverage
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Program
Highlights
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Open Mike Show
 Tim Coco is host of the
more than 50-year staple of democracy, Open Mike Show. The
two-hour program is also seen on WHAV.TV.
The program is brought
to you by Northern Essex Community
College, Merrimack Valley
Economic Development Council and generous listeners.
Mondays, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Community Spotlight
 Someone You Know is on
WHAV! Merrimack Valley non-profit organizations are invited to submit
news of events, fundraising appeals and other community calendar
announcements. Use the form on the News
page
to submit your information. Only local radio can bring you this level
of public service, but only WHAV does.
15 past every
hour.
Wave Weather
 The Boston media
doesn’t always understand unique Valley weather conditions. Acclaimed
WHAV Meteorologists Rob Carolan and Gary Best and the rest of the team
provide Merrimack Valley’s most accurate weather forecasts every half
hour, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.
Every 30 minutes.
 Democracy
Now is an award-winning investigative news magazine highlighting a
grassroots perspective and efforts to ignite democracy. Hosted by Amy
Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, the program pioneers the largest community
media collaboration in the United States. Interviews take place with
politicians, celebrities, muckrakers, academics, artists and “just
folks.”
 Thom
Hartmann is the nation’s top progressive radio talk show host,
according to Talkers Magazine, and is listed among the trade
publication’s “Heaviest Hundred: the 100 most important radio talk show
hosts of all time.” He is a four-time Project Censored-award-winning,
New York Times best-selling author of 22 books in 17 languages on five
continents.
 Produced by Dr. Michio
Kaku, Explorations in Science features news and interviews with leading
scientists on science, technology, politics and the environment.
 The David Pakman Show
is a news and political talk program, known for controversial
interviews with political and religious extremists, liberal and
conservative politicians and other guests. The show, which has been
involved in a number of controversies involving challenges to
homophobic and racist
guests, focuses on the politics and news of the day, technology and
energy development, business, religion and other topics.
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Listen Anywhere
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Web
WHAV.net
WHAV.TV (Open
Mike Show only)
WHAV.org
Cable TV
•
Andover: Channel 8
• Haverhill: Channel 22
• Methuen, Channels 8 + 22 (Comcast) &
32* (Verizon Fios)
• Plaistow,
Channel 17
• Sandown, Channel 17
* Methuen
Channel 32 is heard statewide in communities with Verizon Fios cable
television service.
A special thanks to the
boards, management, staffs and members of the public access television
stations above for bringing not-for-profit WHAV to those without
Internet access! If you would like to hear WHAV on your cable
television system, call your cable company or public access station.
For more information, call (978) 374-2111.
Radio
1640 AM
Cell Phone
Visit www.WHAV.net with your smartphone and be automatically directed to a page specially formatted for your small screen.
About WHAV
The WHAV call letters
have been associated with local broadcasting since 1947. WHAV is today
operated by Public Media of New England Inc., a not-for-profit
corporation. Since 2004, the call has served the Merrimack Valley’s
pioneer Internet radio station at WHAV.net and a number of public
access cable television stations in Andover, Haverhill and Methuen, and
Plaistow and Sandown, N.H. The station is also heard over AM 1640 in
northern Haverhill and Plaistow, N.H.
Public Media of New
England, Inc.
WHAV
189 Ward Hill Ave.
Haverhill, MA 01835
Business Office: (978) 374-2111
On-Air Line: (978) 374-1900
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The 1938 Mercury Theater broadcast of the War of the Worlds has had a continuing impact on American culture. WHAV airs the original program and explores its impact, beginning at 9 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31.
War of the Worlds, Discussions Air This Week Over WHAV
The ‘Panic Broadcast’ 75 Years Later
By Tim Coco
President & General Manager (volunteer)
Seventy-five years ago this week, radio proved its enormous power and reach when Orson Welles aired what would become the most famous broadcast of all time.
The Mercury Theater on the Air presented “War of the Worlds,” a play about a Martian invasion of Earth loosely based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells. The Oct. 30, 1938 CBS radio version used simulated interruptions of music with news bulletins to report the attack. The program aired a little more than eight years before WHAV went on the air, but some Merrimack Valley residents likely tuned in to WEEI radio out of Boston.
I wasn’t there, being born almost 23 years later, but recordings of the broadcast I heard during the 1970s help cement my fascination with radio and news reporting.
The broadcast was said to have caused widespread panic as many Americans fled their homes to escape the Martian “death ray.”
Locally, The Boston Globe reported one woman “claimed she could ‘see the fire’ and said she and many others in her neighborhood were ‘getting out of here.’” This week, you can listen to the actual broadcast and hear opposing views on the program’s actual impact.
‘Skeptic Check: War of the Worlds,’ airs 9 p.m., Thursday over WHAV
 University of Maine Associate Professor Michael J. Socolow says the characterization of widespread panic is an exaggeration.
“I am not doubting that there was quite a bit of fright that night, but I don’t think it was much more than ‘Lights Out,’ the ‘Shadow’ knows and those kind of programs,” he says on “Skeptic Check: War of the Worlds” to be heard at 9 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31 over WHAV.
“When a story catches on, it says something about the anxieties and experiences of people who believe it,” says Jesse Walker of Reason magazine and author of “The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory.”
Today, social media such as Twitter or Facebook could well hype reports of panic and add misinformation, says Kathleen B. Culver. Of the broadcast itself, “I doubt it would fool anyone today and certainly not to the level that people perceive Welles’ War of the Worlds frightened people back then,” says the assistant professor of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
PBS’ American Experience Recreates Panic Reports Tuesday on TV
American Experience (9 p.m., Tuesday, WGBH channel 2) features interviews with film director and cinema historian Peter Bogdanovich, Welles’s daughter Chris Welles Feder and other authors and experts. The program also dramatizes some of the thousands of letters sent to Welles by an alternately admiring and furious public.
“In an era when the public can still be fooled or misled by what is read online, in print, or seen on TV, War of the Worlds is a timely reminder of the power of mass media,” said American Experience Executive Producer Mark Samels.
Orson Welles was only 23 years old when he starred in, and directed, the War of the Worlds.
Listen to the Actual Broadcast 10 p.m., Thursday and Decide for Yourself
WHAV airs radio’s most famous broadcast in its entirety at 10 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31. The original program was broadcast live from the 20th floor of CBS radio headquarters, 485 Madison Ave., New York City.
Unlike today, the music heard (and interrupted) on the program was performed live by the CBS orchestra under the direction of Bernard Herrmann.
Lackluster Haverhill Race Shows Little Divides Candidates
WHAV Continues Election Coverage
It is difficult to find disagreements between candidates for Haverhill city council and school committee. All generally support construction of a new school to replace both the Hunking and Greenleaf Schools and praise Mayor James J. Fiorentini’s administration of the city.
The differences are subtle and WHAV’s election coverage may help voters decide.
Open Mike Show, Monday Nights 6:30, Oct. 28, Nov. 4
Seven candidates have already appeared live on Monday night’s Open Mike Show. These include, in order of appearance, E. Philip Brown, Robert H. Scatamacchia, John A. Michitson, Michael S. Mcgonagle, Colin F. Lepage, William J. Macek and Paul A. Magliocchetti.
This Monday, those scheduled to appear are Kenneth E. Quimby Jr, Melinda E. Barrett, Timothy J. Connors, Lynne A. Saben and Gail Marie Sullivan. Next week, listen for Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien, Fred A. Simmons and Joseph J. Bevilacqua.
Broadcasts may be heard at WHAV.net and seen at WHAV.TV and Haverhill Community Television, Channel 22.
LWV Forum Rebroadcast 7 p.m., Nov. 1 and 3
The League of Women Voters of Greater Haverhill conducted a forum involving all Haverhill city council and school committee candidates last Wednesday night at the Haverhill Citizens Center. WHAV will rebroadcast the event, beginning at 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1, with a repeat at 7 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3.
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