Five years ago today…
The morning of September 11th began like most mornings did. Well, in a sense it didn’t…because in those days I worked the afternoon drive shift at the radio station, so normally I wouldn’t even have gotten up until about 10 AM or so. But because I had to fill in for our midday person, I was up at 7:30 to make sure I’d be ready and get to work on time.
Normally, I listened to our station if I was up in the morning, to catch the latest news. But I had a Christian station on, and awoke to a sermon by Adrian Rogers.
As is my custom even now, I turned on my computer over breakfast to check my e-mail…and what was going on at my favorite websites. I still had no idea what else was happening.
When I checked my AOL mail, I saw these pictures of falling buildings…and there was discussion of the “tragedy”…what tragedy, I wondered? It wasn’t long before I found out what had happened, so as I prepared to leave for work, I turned our station on.
We were in full emergency mode….our morning newsblock was being preempted for coverage of the event live from CBS radio in New York. I knew this was not going to be an ordinary day.
When I got to work, I noticed that our programming was being simulcast on all seven of the stations in our building…even the Spanish language ones. Our poor morning host had an awesome station ID to say at the top of each hour….he had to identify all seven stations! “You’re listening to live CBS coverage of the attack on the World Trade Center on KMJ, Fresno…KSKS, Fresno…KMGV, Fresno…KWYE, Fresno…KOQO-AM, Clovis…KOQO-FM, Fresno…and KHTK, Fresno.” What a mouthful!
We stayed with CBS through the early afternoon…all the commercials we had scheduled were ALL pre-empted…and periodically, our host would come on to summarize local reaction to what was going on. At 2 PM, we began taking calls from our listeners to get their reactions. While all this was going on, most of us were in the newsroom glued to the TV coverage. I distinctly remember watching Ashleigh Banfield on MSNBC out among the confusion, and interrupting her report to pull a pregnant woman out of the way of a piece of a building falling towards her.
The stark reality of the situation made a definite impression on me. I recalled thinking how silly the term “reality show” was applied to such contrived productions as “Survivor” and “American Idol”…THIS was TV verite as perhaps nothing was since the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald on national TV back in 1963.
Things finally calmed down after 3, and I went back to preparing my sports for the afternoon news. Of course, there would be no sports on this day, just reaction from the athletic world on the tragedy. I dutifully reported it, and suddenly, it was over for the day. It was 9 of the fastest hours I had ever spent at work.
People in my position are always asked what our “takes” on the event were. Mine is not really anything different from most people’s…it was a shocking example of the cruelty of mankind, and any spontaneous comments made at a moment like that would more than likely have been irresponsible…so like many, I just absorbed the shock…and did my duty as best I could.
But the one comforting thought I have(and had)about that situation, and others like it…is that when something like that happens, all of a sudden, the silly little life episodes that were so important to us prior to such events are forgotten. We put our selfish preoccupations aside for the betterment of our communities(whatever they may be)….and always afterward, I wonder…why can’t we be like that more often?
Perhaps it takes that kind of tragedy to bring out the nobler and more Godly side of human nature…perhaps not. But I do think about that. I guess that is my overwhelming thought when I think of what happened in New Tork City five years ago today.
Posted on Sep 11, 2006 - 09:20 PM | [0]
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