What happens
At a South Pacific test site, General Frank Gaidash oversees a secret atomic bomb test on Hanayla Island, where the native Tahani people refuse to leave their ancestral home. Press representative Cohen and civilian scientist Dr. Fred Mueller are caught between the military schedule and the islanders' pleas. Tension rises as the chief warns of a curse and the tribe vanishes into the lagoon. When the bomb fails to detonate, the general and Dr. Mueller descend in a diving crawler to recover the device. This X Minus One episode, from the NBC radio series, was broadcast on September 15, 1955, and is based on a story by Ernest Kanhoye.
A South Pacific atoll, Hanayla Island, during preparations for an atomic bomb test, and the lagoon beneath it.
Characters: General Frank Gaidash, Dr. Fred Mueller, Cohen, Colonel Allen, Alan, Gilbert, Barelli, Ellie
Listen for: The chief's warning that the great destroyer will not destroy, and the general's last words to the crew in the lagoon.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.