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9-11-2001-What were YOU doing when the news broke (spin-off of JFK topic)
- Thread starter crainbebo
- Start date
I was into the second day of my third week of community college studies when the tragedy occurred. I never saw it live on TV but we heard about it from the staff.
Staff meeting at then-WKMZ-FM 95.9 in Williamsport-Hargerstown, Maryland. The topic was our new addition of our staff..former long time Washington DC morning guy The Greaseman.
Needless to say due to 9/11 our meeting was not only cancelled but the Greaseman's debut was delayed by 3 days.
Needless to say due to 9/11 our meeting was not only cancelled but the Greaseman's debut was delayed by 3 days.
I had checked the internet before going to work and there was a story about a SMALL PLANE hitting the Trade Center.
Then on drive to work the radio hosts were describing what they were seeing on TV and it sounded like something more. A few minutes later the other plane hit. I was on a later work schedule than the other workers......and by the time I got there.....everybody was like "what in the world is going on?"
I kept going from my work area to the break room to see the TV. Then the first building fell.......later the 2nd one.
We had a large flag pole in front of the building. I asked the WACKO manager if he thought we should go lower the flag. He said, "Not untill we get offical word from the main office."
Other businesses were closing and letting workers go home early, but we had to work a full and complete shift.
Then on drive to work the radio hosts were describing what they were seeing on TV and it sounded like something more. A few minutes later the other plane hit. I was on a later work schedule than the other workers......and by the time I got there.....everybody was like "what in the world is going on?"
I kept going from my work area to the break room to see the TV. Then the first building fell.......later the 2nd one.
We had a large flag pole in front of the building. I asked the WACKO manager if he thought we should go lower the flag. He said, "Not untill we get offical word from the main office."
Other businesses were closing and letting workers go home early, but we had to work a full and complete shift.
It was very early in the morning in Phoenix when it happened, so I was still asleep when I got a frantic phone call from my brother with the news. I immediately turned on the TV. The South Tower had already collapsed by that point, but there was so much smoke and dust, I kept telling myself that what I heard wasn't true - the building was just behind the smoke. I'm a news junkie and had recently lost my job, so I just watched the coverage that day, dumbfounded, until after WTC 7 collapsed. After that, my father asked me to please turn off the TV because he couldn't take it anymore - my parents were living with me in my house at that time.
It was my father's birthday that day and my brother and I were planning to take him to a Diamondbacks baseball game that night - it was their World Series championship year. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
It was my father's birthday that day and my brother and I were planning to take him to a Diamondbacks baseball game that night - it was their World Series championship year. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
I was at Union Station, the combined Amtrak/Greyhound & Peter Pan Train/Bus terminal in Hartford, CT. I was boarding a bus at gate 5A, heading to Springfield, MA, en route to Brattleboro, VT. I was tuning my Sony cassette Walkman to WTIC-AM 1080 for the top of the hour news at 9 AM, waiting to board the bus for a 9:15 AM departure. It started out locally with WTIC-AM and they just decided to throw it over to CBS News soon afterward. We pulled from the gate with an announcement on the loudspeakers that all southbound bus service to New York City had been suspended until further notice. I listened to the audio of then-analog WFSB-TV (CBS) channel 3, since the Walkman only had AM/FM/VHF-TV audio capability. I was just north of Springfield, MA when the first tower collapsed, listening to Dan Rather's coverage and he went silent. I saw the first images of the towers when I went inside the Main Street bus terminal in Springfield, MA, which was on CNN. I got up to Brattleboro, VT without incident. All of the commercial FM stations in Greenfield, MA (along I-91) and Brattleboro were in full simulcast mode of either CNN, CBS or whomever they got their national news from.
Coming home to Connecticut was some scary s---. I boarded the bus in Brattleboro and they driver said he could only guarantee my trip to Springfield, MA. After a wait of maybe 1 1/2 hours, I boarded what ended up being the last southbound bus of the evening to Hartford. Normally that bus would simply head down I-91 south into Hartford, connect with I-84/US Route 6 west and then over to Union Station. That night we crossed the Connecticut River, went past the entrance for Six Flags in Agawam, MA. We then crossed the CT state line into Suffield. What did we ride past a few minutes later? In the early evening hours of September 11th? Yes...Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT. Needless to say I had that lump in my throat when I saw how quiet it was there, since all US air service had been restricted at the time.
The look of relief on my mother's face when I arrived home (from a cab ride) said it all.
Coming home to Connecticut was some scary s---. I boarded the bus in Brattleboro and they driver said he could only guarantee my trip to Springfield, MA. After a wait of maybe 1 1/2 hours, I boarded what ended up being the last southbound bus of the evening to Hartford. Normally that bus would simply head down I-91 south into Hartford, connect with I-84/US Route 6 west and then over to Union Station. That night we crossed the Connecticut River, went past the entrance for Six Flags in Agawam, MA. We then crossed the CT state line into Suffield. What did we ride past a few minutes later? In the early evening hours of September 11th? Yes...Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, CT. Needless to say I had that lump in my throat when I saw how quiet it was there, since all US air service had been restricted at the time.
The look of relief on my mother's face when I arrived home (from a cab ride) said it all.
I was working at WRAL-TV in Raleigh that morning. It was a beautiful morning, with a clear, blue sky. I was listening to Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah on the 30-minute ride to work on the local BBN affiliate, and there was no break-in about the events unfolding in New York and Arlington.
I first became aware of something happening when I exited the car roughly five or ten minutes before 9 a.m. My supervisor pulled up and said it was going to be a busy day, that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. For some reason, I had in my mind some sort of sightseeing plane veering off course, maybe in morning fog. When I entered the TV station, I took my lunch to the breakroom and got my first look on the monitor there of the hole in the North Tower.
At the assignment desk, everyone was watching the smoke pour out of the North Tower on all monitors there. I made a comment about the North Tower supporting all the TV antennae for the NYC market and how those not listening to radio or in sight of the towers may not be aware of what's happening in their city--a comment that fell on deaf ears until a web editor watching said the exact same thing and everyone heard and responded. I think there was some talk about whether this was an accident or something else, maybe even a comment about the Empire State Building being hit by that plane in 1945.
In another minute or two, in an image that will be with me for the rest of my life, a plane appeared to the left of the South Tower and, just as I thought, that's strange, it disappeared into a fireball in the tower--everyone gasped, and knew for sure this was no accident.
As the shock of what i had just seen and was seeing--people jumping from the towers, those on the ground running away, etc., I remember Bob Shieffer on CBS--life from Washington-- saying he didn't want to alarm anyone, but there appeared to be heavy smoke coming from across the river in Virginia--in the direction of the Pentagon. It wasn't long before those images appeared on TV. I recall one of our producers who was usually quite crass and profane in tears.
I don't really remember much about Flight 93, because things got confusing after that. I remember my supervisor telling me to call CBS in New York and book satellite windows--he said to just make up a bogus story name, etc., just make sure we get the windows while we still could--good thinking, because I couldn't get a call into the 212 area code an hour later when additional windows were needed. A reporter who was a NYC native was teamed with a cameraman and sat truck operator and set out for New Jersey to secure a spot across the Hudson, and another team set out for Arlington. Later that day, I would see two national landmarks collapse on live TV.
We received a lot of bizarre telephone calls at the desk, which wasn't unusual, though several from that day stand out: a woman that heard there was some sort of crash in New York but wanted to talk about a corrupt judge in Durham was the first. Someone else took an erroneous call about an explosion at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Later that afternoon, some woman called up the station saying she'd heard on local R&B station Foxy 107 that singer Whitney Houston had died of a drug overdose, another erroneous report out of left field. I didn't check too much into that one as we had much more pressing things to cover.
I called my family to let them know what was going on and to check on them--they were nowhere near New York, Virginia or Pennsylvania, but the emotion of the experience dictated that I do so. One of the reporters' mothers called to let her know that her dad, who worked in the Pentagon, had safely escaped, and I reached her to let her know as soon as possible.
I was there until 6 that day, and remember being mentally exausted when I got home. The events of that day would drive storylines for the next few days, weeks and months. I left there in 2002 for another job, but that day obviously still affects news coverage to this day. Shortly after 9/11, a poster of an American flag replaced one of the station's helicopter (I think) in the back of the newsroom that is framed between the two anchors..it's still there. Our station and all the cable networks adopted the ubiquitous, continuous crawl during that time.
Please forgive the dissertation, but I have a lot of vivid memories of that tragic day, and the unique setting in which I watched those events unfold.
I first became aware of something happening when I exited the car roughly five or ten minutes before 9 a.m. My supervisor pulled up and said it was going to be a busy day, that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. For some reason, I had in my mind some sort of sightseeing plane veering off course, maybe in morning fog. When I entered the TV station, I took my lunch to the breakroom and got my first look on the monitor there of the hole in the North Tower.
At the assignment desk, everyone was watching the smoke pour out of the North Tower on all monitors there. I made a comment about the North Tower supporting all the TV antennae for the NYC market and how those not listening to radio or in sight of the towers may not be aware of what's happening in their city--a comment that fell on deaf ears until a web editor watching said the exact same thing and everyone heard and responded. I think there was some talk about whether this was an accident or something else, maybe even a comment about the Empire State Building being hit by that plane in 1945.
In another minute or two, in an image that will be with me for the rest of my life, a plane appeared to the left of the South Tower and, just as I thought, that's strange, it disappeared into a fireball in the tower--everyone gasped, and knew for sure this was no accident.
As the shock of what i had just seen and was seeing--people jumping from the towers, those on the ground running away, etc., I remember Bob Shieffer on CBS--life from Washington-- saying he didn't want to alarm anyone, but there appeared to be heavy smoke coming from across the river in Virginia--in the direction of the Pentagon. It wasn't long before those images appeared on TV. I recall one of our producers who was usually quite crass and profane in tears.
I don't really remember much about Flight 93, because things got confusing after that. I remember my supervisor telling me to call CBS in New York and book satellite windows--he said to just make up a bogus story name, etc., just make sure we get the windows while we still could--good thinking, because I couldn't get a call into the 212 area code an hour later when additional windows were needed. A reporter who was a NYC native was teamed with a cameraman and sat truck operator and set out for New Jersey to secure a spot across the Hudson, and another team set out for Arlington. Later that day, I would see two national landmarks collapse on live TV.
We received a lot of bizarre telephone calls at the desk, which wasn't unusual, though several from that day stand out: a woman that heard there was some sort of crash in New York but wanted to talk about a corrupt judge in Durham was the first. Someone else took an erroneous call about an explosion at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Later that afternoon, some woman called up the station saying she'd heard on local R&B station Foxy 107 that singer Whitney Houston had died of a drug overdose, another erroneous report out of left field. I didn't check too much into that one as we had much more pressing things to cover.
I called my family to let them know what was going on and to check on them--they were nowhere near New York, Virginia or Pennsylvania, but the emotion of the experience dictated that I do so. One of the reporters' mothers called to let her know that her dad, who worked in the Pentagon, had safely escaped, and I reached her to let her know as soon as possible.
I was there until 6 that day, and remember being mentally exausted when I got home. The events of that day would drive storylines for the next few days, weeks and months. I left there in 2002 for another job, but that day obviously still affects news coverage to this day. Shortly after 9/11, a poster of an American flag replaced one of the station's helicopter (I think) in the back of the newsroom that is framed between the two anchors..it's still there. Our station and all the cable networks adopted the ubiquitous, continuous crawl during that time.
Please forgive the dissertation, but I have a lot of vivid memories of that tragic day, and the unique setting in which I watched those events unfold.
I woke up to KROQ 106.7 expecting to hear a best-of show from Kevin and Bean. Instead I was listening to the news staff talking about something going on in NYC. ???
Then my parents called and told me about the events. After showering I turned on the TV to find wall-to-wall coverage. On my way out I thought I heard one of the towers fell while thinking "Naw, that can't happen." :-\
On the drive to work I surfed thru the LA FM stations to find only two Mexican format music stations playing music. All the other stations (notably the 5 CBS & Clear Channel FMs) running simulcasts (all the CC stations running KFI) or the DJs were reading news.
That was definitely a sad day. And all the NYC hater Angelinos, including myself, got their love for the Big Apple that day. Hit one of us and we all :'(
Then my parents called and told me about the events. After showering I turned on the TV to find wall-to-wall coverage. On my way out I thought I heard one of the towers fell while thinking "Naw, that can't happen." :-\
On the drive to work I surfed thru the LA FM stations to find only two Mexican format music stations playing music. All the other stations (notably the 5 CBS & Clear Channel FMs) running simulcasts (all the CC stations running KFI) or the DJs were reading news.
That was definitely a sad day. And all the NYC hater Angelinos, including myself, got their love for the Big Apple that day. Hit one of us and we all :'(
I was working for a station in Northern NJ just about 10 miles from ground zero. It had been hot, humid, and muggy in the days leading up to Sept. 11th. That morning on my drive to work I was enjoying the brilliant sunshine and thinking how pleasant mid-September was now that the humidity had gone. While I had been listening to my station, I was in the middle of scanning around the dial when I heard the first report of a plane hitting the tower. Since I was stuck in traffic a few miles from the station, I called our morning man to make sure he was on top of the story, which he was. I told him to make sure we had updates on it every 15 minutes.
Got to work a few minutes later and checked in with the morning people who were continuing to update and follow the story. Our offices and studios were in a 5 story building from which you could see the top third of the towers. I went up to the 5th floor where a group of about 10 people from other offices were watching the smoke pour out from where the first plane had hit. It was a beautiful clear morning and I remember saying out loud to no one in particular "that was not an accident". Plus we could see based on the amount of damage to the first tower that it was not a small plane that had crashed into the building. It had to be something larger, much larger.
I left the 5th floor and headed back to our studios on the 4th floor. When I walked into the studio, our morning guy was completely white. He turned to me and said "another plane just hit the second tower". I was stunned. Had I been watching from the 5th floor for just another minute, I would have seen it happen in person. To this day, I'm glad I didn't. It's hard enough seeing it on film and video.
By about 9:20 that morning we had dropped the music format and gone to continuous news coverage. All available staffers were told to come in. I was on the air when the towers fell and when the news broke about the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in PA. It was a day filled with a lot of confusion and conflicting information and there were times when it was tough to keep it together on the air.
My wife was unable to get a hold of me for several hours because the phone lines were overloaded. The family lives about an hour west of the city so I knew they were fine where they were but they weren't sure about me. Eventually I was able to get through to her. She had gone out and picked up all the kids from school that day and brought them home early.
I didn't get home until later that evening. Needless to say, it was a long and exhausting day. My youngest son was just 2 and 1/2 years old and I remember not being able to sleep that night. So I spent a good part of the night laying down next to him watching him sleep so soundly and so peacefully, wishing I could do that too.
Got to work a few minutes later and checked in with the morning people who were continuing to update and follow the story. Our offices and studios were in a 5 story building from which you could see the top third of the towers. I went up to the 5th floor where a group of about 10 people from other offices were watching the smoke pour out from where the first plane had hit. It was a beautiful clear morning and I remember saying out loud to no one in particular "that was not an accident". Plus we could see based on the amount of damage to the first tower that it was not a small plane that had crashed into the building. It had to be something larger, much larger.
I left the 5th floor and headed back to our studios on the 4th floor. When I walked into the studio, our morning guy was completely white. He turned to me and said "another plane just hit the second tower". I was stunned. Had I been watching from the 5th floor for just another minute, I would have seen it happen in person. To this day, I'm glad I didn't. It's hard enough seeing it on film and video.
By about 9:20 that morning we had dropped the music format and gone to continuous news coverage. All available staffers were told to come in. I was on the air when the towers fell and when the news broke about the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in PA. It was a day filled with a lot of confusion and conflicting information and there were times when it was tough to keep it together on the air.
My wife was unable to get a hold of me for several hours because the phone lines were overloaded. The family lives about an hour west of the city so I knew they were fine where they were but they weren't sure about me. Eventually I was able to get through to her. She had gone out and picked up all the kids from school that day and brought them home early.
I didn't get home until later that evening. Needless to say, it was a long and exhausting day. My youngest son was just 2 and 1/2 years old and I remember not being able to sleep that night. So I spent a good part of the night laying down next to him watching him sleep so soundly and so peacefully, wishing I could do that too.
At the time, I was actually employed parttime with the US Postal Service in a central Massachusetts town. However, that day, I was actually off for a couple days and on Cape Cod.
Had the radio on in my hotel room as I was getting ready to head to the beach and the dj mentioned that a plane had hit the WTC. Turned the tv on and saw the smoking tower. Watched for a while, then went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Then, back to my room to watch it for a little while longer. Eventually, went to the beach for the day. I did listen to Howard Stern on the car radio on the way to the beach where listeners were calling in to tell him to stay on the air.
I THINK I was watching extended coverage of the Today Show and I THINK I saw the 2nd plane hit 'live' but I'm not sure. I'm also don't recall if I watched either tower fall 'live'. Kinda strange, you'd think I'd remember that.
Back to work at the USPS the next day, everyone was fairly quiet and we had a brief safety meeting about being aware of suspicious packages and such.
Had the radio on in my hotel room as I was getting ready to head to the beach and the dj mentioned that a plane had hit the WTC. Turned the tv on and saw the smoking tower. Watched for a while, then went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Then, back to my room to watch it for a little while longer. Eventually, went to the beach for the day. I did listen to Howard Stern on the car radio on the way to the beach where listeners were calling in to tell him to stay on the air.
I THINK I was watching extended coverage of the Today Show and I THINK I saw the 2nd plane hit 'live' but I'm not sure. I'm also don't recall if I watched either tower fall 'live'. Kinda strange, you'd think I'd remember that.
Back to work at the USPS the next day, everyone was fairly quiet and we had a brief safety meeting about being aware of suspicious packages and such.
I had a meeting scheduled in Fairborn Schools that morning and the Treasurer called and asked he he could make it later. I was standing in my bedroom watching NBC when the first plane hit the tower. The rest of the morning I watched TV and didn't speak. By afternoon, when the full measure of the disaster was known, I jumped on my Harley, and rode to Morehead State Univ and sat in the same place I had been on Nov 22, 1963 when Pres. Kennedy was killed. I sat in this large auditorium for over an hour, totally by myself, thinking of how the world had changed since I had been there last. I was 56 yrs old and I couldn't stop the tears from falling. And I knew, just like I did in 1963, that the world would never be the same again.
I was still in bed, as I was working second shift for an engineering firm. Around 10AM, my mother called, telling me that the WTC is gone, and the Pentagon was attacked, so I turned on the TV and there it was, in living color on just about every channel -- the WTC in ruins. I also tuned into the Canadian stations (I had a gray-market sub at the time) -- everything there was 9/11 as well. The CBC gave their own usual, unique perspective of the story; I saw coverage on CTV and Citytv as well.
Same here -- I worked my normal hours that night; though that entire week was quite tense, especially with every radio and TV tuned to around-the-clock 9/11 coverage.
gregg75 said:
Same here -- I worked my normal hours that night; though that entire week was quite tense, especially with every radio and TV tuned to around-the-clock 9/11 coverage.
...interestingly, I'd fallen asleep earlier that morning with the TV tuned to WPIX/11 for their overnight showing of The Odd Couple. I briefly woke up about 10 minutes before the first plane hit, saw Maury Povich on the screen and decided that, since the world was going about its business-as-usual, I'd snooze a little longer. A minute after the second plane hit, I was awoken by the silence of the TV, glanced over and saw a Dish Network "Technical Difficulties"-type message on the screen, switched over to KTLA/5 Los Angeles, and saw the live image of both WTC towers afire. I thought to myself, "No $#!+ they're having technical difficulties"...
...interestingly, many locales around the U.S. got the CBC coverage terestrially, as HSN flipped over to NewsWorld International's relay of the CBC News reportage for the next couple of days. I recorded six hours of it on a VHS that I took another look at just the other day...azumanga said:
I got to work at 9am and they had set up a TV in the lunchroom for people to watch. That was the first I heard of it. I must've not watched the news that day, 'cause I usually left the house at 7:30am to catch the subway and I live in Chicago. No one on the busses or subway was talking about it.
M
musicman3355
Guest
I was 16 that time. It was 5:55 when I got out of the shower, then tuned to 102.7 KIIS-FM and heard Rick Dees (morning host that time) telling about a plane crash at the WTC. I first thought, no, this was a stupid joke. No way a plane could crash to the WTC. So I turned on the TV to KTTV/Fox 11 relaying WNYW/Fox 5. I was in another room, but then came back to the living room and saw another explosion. By then, I knew this had to be an attack. I was traumatized by what I just saw. This is all I remember...
B
Bob1370
Guest
Was doing prep for my early afternoon talk show in Rochester, NY, half-looking at the newsroom monitor tuned to CNN, when I saw the first hit. Triggered a thought of the ESB being hit by a B-17 just after World War II--but the second plane dispelled any thought of an accident.
Ran to my desk, hit the phones, lined up guests to discuss what had happened and went on the air to try to make sense of something senseless.
My memory of that whole time was a blur of constant booking calls, interviews, listener calls, all the way to the end of the week.
Ran to my desk, hit the phones, lined up guests to discuss what had happened and went on the air to try to make sense of something senseless.
My memory of that whole time was a blur of constant booking calls, interviews, listener calls, all the way to the end of the week.
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