When the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened, life as we knew it changed. In the USA, and even in Canada, the innocence that we took for granted was gone. Our children would never experience the freedoms we experienced.
This Friday we’ll acknowledge the more than 3,000 people who died on that Tuesday 25 years ago. There will be tributes in New York, Washington, DC, Shanksville, PA, and across the nation. Stories will be told. Sadness revisited. History will be passed on to those who were too young or unborn at that time.
Think about your own thoughts, actions, and feelings from that day in 2001. Most of the population will remember the moment as a benchmark memory. “Where were you on 9/11?” is more than a question.
Conversation about that day and the way many lives were touched will be a part of what we hear and see across all media and social platforms as we approach this Friday. I’m very aware of audio tributes being created, websites being updated, and events being magnified with the power of radio and mass media. Talent who lived through the terrorist attack will share their memories.
Many of us, including myself, will relive that day through the stories of those in close proximity to the attacks.
I’ve heard them talk about the beauty of the day before the attack, the eerie silence that night after leaving a studio where they’d broadcast for 18 hours, not seeing a plane in the sky after all were grounded. We witnessed on TV the debris-covered reporters, the vision of bloodied survivors and first responders, the horror of witnesses, and the grief of those who lost loved ones.
I was in the Pacific time zone the day of the attack, visiting a radio client for what was supposed to be a Monday-Wednesday consulting trip. Twenty-five years ago, the internet was still hard-wired. I needed a cord, and a little before 6:00am, I called the front desk of the hotel to ask if they could bring me one. The young man who delivered it said, “Turn on your TV. A plane flew into a building in Manhattan.” He and I stood there watching Bryant Gumbel on The Today Show live as the second plane flew into the second of the Twin Towers.
The actions that began at that moment were fast, and media overall scrambled to break into programming with bulletins. Non-News stations dropped music and launched into crisis coverage from the major radio networks. If a station didn’t have a network, many broke the rebroadcast rules and simulcast CNN, Fox News Channel, or other television audio. Informing the audience was critical.
I left the hotel and met the programming team at the cluster of stations housing my client. We collaborated on how we could keep the audience informed, and more importantly, how, as a non-News cluster, we ourselves could be informed.
Yet deep in my heart, despite the adrenaline of what we were doing to partner with local television and news sources to deliver critical information, I just wanted to be home. Even many hours from New York City, my family and their safety were top of mind for me. With no air travel, no train stations near where I was, buses packed and no reservations, and I couldn’t find a car rental anywhere.
That distance didn’t make me feel any more comfortable or safe, as rumors of what was to come were everywhere. We were in the dark as to when the next attack would come or where it would come from, and we weren’t yet informed as a nation who was behind this violation of our freedom.
Like those at the stations I was then camped out at, we turned our energy and focus on helping others by keeping them informed, providing help lines to check on loved ones, and beginning to think of what’s ahead in the days to come.
For instance, the Z100 (WHTZ) studios were in New Jersey at the time. They had a camera positioned at a studio window that showed the burning and collapse of the twin towers. We encouraged stations to post the same link to their websites. Because music stations dropped songs, it was natural to open the phones for listeners to share their concerns and stories. Breaking format was the format.
In some cases, music radio didn’t return to playing songs for a week to ten days. You may remember that Late Night TV was off the air for a week. When all shows did return, they were more subdued. The same for radio’s high-profile personalities. The search for survivors lasted 48 hours, but the recovery phase lasted almost 8.5 months.
Radio was there for that recovery phase, as we are now, with charities like Tunnels to Towers, Tuesday’s Children, VOICES Center for Resilience, and more. Mental Health issues were often hidden away in the past, but the trauma created by 9/11 brought to the forefront that sometimes we all need someone to talk to, receive counseling from, and feel compassion from others.
The sense of pride in America that was felt then was magnified by the spirit that radio delivered. Stations began playing the National Anthem at set times during the day. Some still do today. That patriotic reflection continues to be supported by media.
It took me three more days to find a way back across America. A friend’s son was in Los Angeles, and he had a rental car. He wasn’t keen to drive 3,000 miles by himself. That became my ride home. We were able to travel together up until a split in the highway a couple of hours from his home and mine. From there, it was family who came to meet me and bring me back.
What was never out of my mind were those who wouldn’t be going home, and the loved ones who never got a reunion.
Because of 9/11, and because of the technology that exists today that was unimaginable 25 years ago, along with prior preparation and discussion, we as an industry should be even better prepared should we encounter a tragedy of such national magnitude ever again. Hopefully, we never will.
