September 11, 2001As a Director, it was the hardest day of my career so far - trying to hold back your feelings, your emotions, your anger - while being on-the-air with non-stop live coverage of the tragic events in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Whether you agree or disagree that six years after the fact, we - the media - still do too much coverage of the anniversary, it's worthy of looking back on that day behind the scenes at WKYC.
At 9 am, the phone rang. A friend called to ask me if I had seen the jet crash into the World Trade Center. "It had to be an accident," I said to myself still half awake - perhaps it was just a small commuter plane and wasn't that big a deal. I was not comprehending what I was hearing. After all, I was on vacation and news was the furthest thing from my mind. Then I get the second call...about a second plane and realized this is something bad.
I jumped out of bed, turned on the TV and couldn't believe what I was watching. It looked like one of those doomsday movies you see at the theater... This was real. Real buildings were burning...real people were panicked...and every station I turned to was on the air with the same horrible pictures.
Then the towers collapsed one by one. My heart sank. I began to cry each time. I was witnessing people dying on my TV.
I called the station to see if they needed me. My boss, Terry Moir, answered the newsroom phone - and I knew that wasn't good. The place was in chaos - by this time, downtown Cleveland was being evacuated and everyone was being sent home. Terry said they were fine.
Moments later, the phone rang again. Terry said I better come in right away.
Driving to the station was serene.. By the time I arrived around noon - downtown was a ghost town...there was an eerie silence about it - no jet traffic overhead, few cars, no trucks - nothing by a dead silence.
I remember walking into our control room and seeing the grief on everyone's faces. Never before had I seen so many people crammed into the control room, answering phones, producers trying to gather information and directors lining up to take turns doing a half hour at time. Ned Tate, Al Wohl, and myself took over the coverage after morning directors Mark Bogden and Tammy Morris finished their time.
The decision was then made by our General Manager Brooke Spectorsky that we would continue to broadcast NBC's coverage on Channel 3 - with our non-stop local coverage broadcast on our partner station, WVPX, Channel 23. And so we did. Anchors Tim White and Romona Robinson were on the air for hours and hours trying to tie it all together with a local angle to a truly national tragedy.
I think the hardest part of that day was sitting in the chair, directing and thinking to myself - how am I able to sit here, focus on my job and not get emotional while there was a job to do? Perhaps we are de-sensitized to violence when we work in the news...we aren't allowed to be human when it matters most. And that has been ingrained in my mind ever since. Now every time I direct something bad, I think back to that day.
Earlier, I posted an article about MSNBC rebroadcasting 3 hours of their coverage today as it aired on September 11, 2001. I said to myself I wouldn't watch, but I did - and the whole day came back to me like it was yesterday.
Perhaps it's not a bad thing we remember this event year after year. We need reminded often that bad people want to kill us and we must protect ourselves and our country from becoming terrorized by these bastards.
I welcome your feedback... my email is: fmacek@wkyc.com
2 comments:
Wonderful post on an awful day, Frank...thanks for the perspective. We had a similar experience here in radio in Akron with bulletin after bulletin. We pulled one of our VP's off a golf course charity event and sent him to Akron-Canton Airport; our WQMX morning man went to Hopkins; we dispatched reporters to City Hall, local hospitals and anywhere else we could think of with international or security angles. We shared local anchoring with ABC NewsRadio network feeds for five hours, simulcasting our coverage on all of our radio stations (WAKR, WONE and WQMX) through the day. That evening we continued with full live coverage from our network on WAKR and had hourly updates from our newsroom on all three stations; our program directors did major scrambling reworking formats and music lists to try and avoid songs or announcements which could be disrespectful.
It was one of our proudest moments in providing service to our listeners, not only on what was happening around the country but here at home. That said, I hope we never have to do it again.
Great story, Frank.
I was working just down the street from you on that awful day. I maintain the outdoor videowalls in the theater district, and on that morning, ad ay that started out so deceptively serene, my first inkling of something wrong was a panicky phone call saying "Where the %$#! is the SOUND?!!" (the audio system had a problem that morning). On my way to the parking lot I walked past a TV set showing one of the twin towers with smoke pouring out of it.
When I got down there, people were coming out of their offices and gathering on the plaza, quietly transfixed in horror as they watched the events unfolding on the big screens in the plaza. As the morning wore on, more people came outside to watch, then more... an impromptu family of sorts, gathering some solace from each other as they watched. It was a stunning moment of humanity.
By noon the air was filled with the sound of motorists racing out of the area, and by early afternoon it was eerily quiet.
I will never forget that day on so many different levels.
jb
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