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9 11 radio coverage

C

ChrisWright

I think that almost all of us that were working radio 12 years ago were tied up doing the very best coverage we could on our respective stations that day. We never got to hear how our brothers and sisters on the air handled things. It would be interesting to hear some of your stories about what you did to keep your audience informed.

I was at 97.9 WVOK-FM in Oxford at the time. We used a combination of network feeds and local updates throughout the day. I was on the air watching the TV as the 2nd plane hit and trying to describe it was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. We called my preacher in to offer a prayer on the air and then flew by the seats of our pants.

I was on the air for a marathon blizzard broadcast back in 1993 and did 19 hours solo and a total of three days before leaving the station then. That was a breeze compared to 9 11 because it was something I could understand and see the progress. We knew what had to be done and dd it. 9 11 was more emotional, more confusing... I still don't know how to prepare for something like that other than to have the best people possible working for you and connections with as many other people as possible. Unfortunately I think that as an industry we are less prepared now than we were then. I hope I'm wrong but I also hope I don't find out.
 
I was on evenings at my station back then and had worked the night before so I was still in bed when the first tower was hit. I was awoken by a phone call about it and watched the rest of it unfold live on TV at home. I'll never forget the images and sounds of that day. We also did a mix of network coverage from CNN and local break-ins from our news director. I was at a loss for words so it was a good thing that most of my show that evening was just news coverage so I didn't say much. The news department pretty much took over the station for the next several days and we even dumped all the spots scheduled to run. No commercial breaks and no music. We were also in "fly by the seat of our pants" mode because no one really knew the proper way to handle it but I think we all ended up doing a pretty good job, especially the news dept. I know it's probably inevitable but hope we never have to deal with anything like that again.
 
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