Radio spoof causes 'alien invasion' panic

The station later apologized for the spoof. Image Credit: CC 2.0 Curtis Kennington

A radio station got more than it bargained for when a promotional invasion spoof got out of control. To help promote a planned change to their schedule, Alabama radio station Star 94.9 decided it would be a good idea to air a warning that extraterrestrials were invading the Earth.

 Incredibly, a significant number of its listeners ended up taking the report seriously, leading to a bizarre series of events that mirrored a similar incident in 1938 when a radio rendition of HG Wells' War of the Worlds was mistaken for a genuine invasion. Residents across the town of Tuscumbia in Alabama started to make frantic calls to the radio station and to local authorities in fear that the end of the world was at hand. As the situation escalated events took an even more sinister turn in the form of a bomb threat at a local school.



 "We certainly apologize, but we had no intention to cause any problems or create concerns about schools," said Regional director of Shoals Radio, Brian Rickman. "We are truly taken back by how out of context this has been taken. We could not have foreseen this happening."

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