9-11 Remembered

[JustPastBuffalo]

On this day when we honor with dignity and grace the victims and heroes of 9-11, the thought occured to ask what the posters and readers of this board were doing when the news first broke five years ago.

What are your recollections of the day? Where were you? How did you respond? Where did you tune to find out what had happened: Radio, TV-Cable, the Internet? How did the medium to which you turned respond to the events of the day?

If you were "on the job," how did you and your colleagues respond? Your thoughtful contributions are appreciated.

Respectfully,
Jim Pastrick

 

[topsound]

As I'll bet most of us did, I found out on the radio. The first plane hit as I was on the 190 heading downtown, listening to Stern, of all things. IIRC, Robin Quivers called it out first, initially thinking it was a light-plane accident. I also punched around to WBEN (which went to CBS coverage), and NPR/WBFO.

I don't remember why, but I think I was late getting in that day (I'm usually at my desk by 8:40). The second plane must have hit while I was still driving in, because I do remembering walking to the office without any doubt that we were being attacked, and looking around at OUR tall buildings.

I stopped in the Ellicott Square lobby and watched CNN for a few minutes before heading up to work. The whole day is somewhat of a blur. I should have stopped and written some things down.

Schuh

 

[Element9]

While on vacation, I first heard the news on public radio in the Syracuse area, WAER or WRVO. The first pictures that I saw came from CNN at a thruway gas and rest stop. The entire building was spellbound and shocked. I noticed that people came in from the parking lot but very few left, or at least didn't leave as quickly. After about 20 minutes, the entire courtyard area was packed. People could be heard crying and an occasional gasp could be heard. Cell phones were ringing all over the room, and although it was relatively calm, people could be heard conversing with family and friends.

My vacation came to a quick end as I topped the tyank and headed toward Buffalo, not caring that I was doing nearly 80 miles an hour. NY state police cars were mostly heading east bound and the two that passed me going westbound seemed to have more urgent business than to pull over a Jeep Cherokee that was hop-scotching lanes and keeping up with the flow of traffic. On the way back to Buffalo, I listened to WSYR and WHAM as well as NPR, which did a very good job, especially covering the events at the Pentagon. For reasons unknown, it didn't enter my mind to check out the music stations on FM to hear their commentary or "how" they were handling the situation. I went directly to the news stations. A few days later, it dawned on me that despite being in radio, I acted exactly like any regular listener might have and went to the stations that I knew would provide news.

As much as I depended on the radio for information while driving, I made another rest stop at the Pembroke area to again see the pictures on TV. People were moving in and out of the restaurant building at a brisk pace. I found out why as soon as I entered the building. There was no TV available. I quickly turned around, got in my car and hit the road again. When I arrived back home, I was glued to CNN and MSNBC, which I thought offered the best coverage. I didn't listen to radio the rest of the day.

 

[audioconnell Voice Talent]

I was sitting in a Manhattan Bagel store on Niagara Falls Blvd., preparing for a meeting.

They were playing WJYE on the music system when the announcement came across...I can't recall whether it was Joe who made the announcement or if they went to the network regarding a plane that had crashed into a WTC tower...I remember thinking it was likely a small private plane; I was still unaware of the true cause.

The people behind the counter decided it would be best to go to a "news source"...so they went to Kiss 98.5 :(gives you some idea of the age of the workers there). This was before they went wall to wall network coverage (as, impressively, did most music stations).

I believe it was there that I heard about the second plane and realized that we were under attack.

Later I went to my meeting and found out about the Pentagon, followed up by the collapse of the first tower.

At noon I went to St. Joseph Cathedral and could barely contain my emotions when the organist played America the Beautiful. I tried to sing but the reality and the emotions of the day left my throat closed.

I just prayed.

Still do.

 

[Obtuse1]

Was doing TV Master Control in Florida. Went to the traffic director' office, either CNN or NBC was on. We all thought (as most did) that it was small plane accident. Went back to Master Control and put CNN on one of my monitors. Then the second plane hit. Soon after we ran a crawl under our regular programming (Full House, I think). We were a UPN affiliate with no newscast at the time, so we had nothing else to go to. Later Viacom sister network CBS offered us their coverage. Rest of the department was keeping an eye on CNN mostly. I caught a bit of the BBC's coverage (via Bravo), and noticed more close-ups of the buildings (folks hanging out windows etc.) that kind of brought the whole thing into perspective. Later we aired a live panel-type show (that our GM quickly put together) with local leaders to discuss the local impact of the event.