With the availability of hi-tech special effects, television and film might seem to be the ideal media for dramatising science fiction stories. Once upon a time, however, there was only radio. In the age of computer graphics radio has become an under-appreciated source of fantastic entertainment. Yet, radio drama in that genre has a long history and a bright future.
The pre-television days of the 1930s were the Golden Age of radio drama. The so-called Old Time Radio Shows of that period were many and varied. 
Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon are fondly remembered as heroes of campy movie serials, but before appearing on film they were extremely popular on radio. Their early audio adventures, which began in 1932 and 1935, respectively, were cheesy by today's standards. Their casts and crews, however, were pioneers of radio.
From the same period, the genre also produced perhaps the most famous radio event in history: Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre production of War of the Worlds. Aired in 1938 under the title Invasion From Mars, the show played on the fears of Americans jittery about an impending war in Europe. Welles presented the story in the form of news bulletins that interrupted "regular" programming to keep audiences up to date with the fictional Martian invasion. Evidently it was too convincing for some people, who took to the streets in panic.
Two years after the fake Martian landings, Superman arrived to save the world. Beginning in 1940, the Mutual Broadcasting Company's The Adventures of Superman went on to establish some of the mythology surrounding the character, including the famous exclamation, "It's a giant bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" The series also introduced Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet, and photographer Jimmy Olsen. Later episodes were notable as morality plays, some of them aimed at the Klu Klux Klan. The series ended in 1951.
By the end of the Second World War people knew how effectively advances in science and technology could produce massive death and destruction. Military needs had driven advances in rockets, though, revving up the space race. People began to believe that other worlds might be within reach. It was probably no coincidence that serious science fiction radio drama was at its most popular during the late 1940s and 1950s.
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