Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Opening Segment 9/11/26

Transcript

Opening Segment 9/11/26 · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: 25 years after 9-11, the day New York changed forever.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: WOR remembers.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Curtis and Larry. New York changed. The country changed.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: The world changed. We all changed on this day 25
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: years ago. September 11th, 2001. We all have our memories
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  Speaker 1: of It's just as important that we gather as a community,
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  Speaker 1: much like we did right after 9-11. There was a
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  Speaker 1: unity in this country that hasn't existed since. But in
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  Speaker 1: memory of that day, we should unify once again. And
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  Speaker 1: so we're going to dedicate this show not only to
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  Speaker 1: what's going on down at Ground Zero, but to the
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  Speaker 1: memory of those who died and those who have died since.
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  Speaker 1: But also... Remembering that day is a very personal experience,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it? We all have our stories. Some are tragic.
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  Speaker 1: Some are wonderful. I mean, people coming from all over
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  Speaker 1: the country to respond to this. And there's unity, and
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  Speaker 1: there's heroes, and there's devils, and there are so many
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  Speaker 1: stories to share. We want to hear yours. You can
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: leave us a talk back at any point this morning,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: anytime you want to share a story, remember a loved one,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: or just let us know how you're feeling today. Because
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  Speaker 1: for many of us, the feelings of that day are
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: rushing back today. You can do that by going to
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  Speaker 1: 710WOR on the iHeartRadio app. Once again, 710WOR on the
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app. And today, by the way, we're giving out
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  Speaker 1: the Caller of the Week, the C-Crane radio, radios that
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  Speaker 1: work when it matters most. And I'm sure it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a call from today. So, please, we want
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  Speaker 1: to hear from you. But I think it's important, Curtis,
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  Speaker 1: on this day, especially from you and Natalie, since you
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  Speaker 1: were both here on that day. I can talk about
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  Speaker 1: my experience, but it's much different than yours. Curtis, why
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  Speaker 1: don't you start? What was it like on 9-11-2001? Clear day.
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  Speaker 1: Clear day.
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  Speaker 3: There was a Democratic primary taking place because Rudy Giuliani
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  Speaker 3: had been term-limited out. The Democrats were way ahead in
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  Speaker 3: the polls, whether it was Mark Green or Fernando Ferrer,
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  Speaker 3: were running against one another. They want to beat the
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  Speaker 3: billionaire Michael Bloomberg. The polls were overwhelming. So people were
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  Speaker 3: going out to vote. I was at WABC at the time.
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  Speaker 3: I had just come back from Florida where I spoke
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  Speaker 3: the night before. And we were going through the assignments
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  Speaker 3: of what are we going to cover? What are we
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  Speaker 3: going to do? Uh, and nobody obviously had any idea
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  Speaker 3: what was awaiting us with the smashing of that plane
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  Speaker 3: into tower one, eventually its implosion, uh, followed quickly by
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  Speaker 3: the smashing of a plane into tower two and its implosion.
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  Speaker 3: And I think, uh, from a radio perspective, uh, Remember,
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  Speaker 3: we didn't have the internet to rely on for news
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  Speaker 3: and information. And when the towers went down by the
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  Speaker 3: time that catastrophe took place, there was no TV.
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  Speaker 1: That's it.
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  Speaker 3: All the towers, the big antenna up on the World
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  Speaker 3: Trade Center, they had been moved from the Empire State Building.
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  Speaker 3: And there was no streaming.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: Now people... was so dependent on radio, like they are
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  Speaker 3: during blackouts or other major disasters. So we had to
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  Speaker 3: hold it down. There was no breaks or no advertisements.
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  Speaker 3: It was just whatever we could get our hands on
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  Speaker 3: to inform the general public that everybody was shocked. We
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  Speaker 3: were getting calls coming in. People were basically being deputized
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  Speaker 3: to tell us what was going on in their area.
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  Speaker 3: And The shock of it all, being on the air
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  Speaker 3: for 12 straight hours before we were relieved, and then
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  Speaker 3: eventually I worked my way down to the World Trade
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  Speaker 3: Center site. You could see the plume in the distance,
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  Speaker 3: and it was easy access in and out, but it's
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  Speaker 3: something that all the pictures, all the video, all the
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  Speaker 3: commemorations don't do justice to. It was a catastrophe. It was...
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  Speaker 3: I would say like Dante's Inferno. If there was anything
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  Speaker 3: that could possibly equate to Dante's Inferno, it was that.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to talk to Joe Bartlett, who is retired now,
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  Speaker 1: but he was the newsman at WOR on that day.
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  Speaker 1: And he saw the second plane hit the tower, which
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  Speaker 1: is amazing. So we're going to be talking to him
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  Speaker 1: coming up. But Natalie Vaca was also here that day.
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  Speaker 1: And you were here for many days after. I think
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  Speaker 1: you slept at the station. So Can you share what
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  Speaker 1: you went through on that day?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I was still pretty young in my career,
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  Speaker 2: and I was producing the morning show. It was with
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  Speaker 2: Ed Walsh at that time. John Gambling had just left
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  Speaker 2: a year earlier. And it started off like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Curtis was saying, it was a beautiful morning. We were
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  Speaker 2: kind of wrapping up the show at that point, and
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  Speaker 2: we have a line. It was called Star 710, where
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  Speaker 2: people could call with traffic. And I saw it ringing,
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  Speaker 2: and I said, eh. We only have one more report,
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  Speaker 2: but I guess I'll pick it up. I picked it up,
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  Speaker 2: and it was a regular caller. It was a truck
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  Speaker 2: driver from the Jersey Turnpike. And he said to me,
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  Speaker 2: he's like, Natalie, he goes, the Twin Towers, it's on fire.
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  Speaker 2: I was like, what is he talking about? Because I'm
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  Speaker 2: staring at television. They got the Today Show on. They
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  Speaker 2: didn't have anything on. I'm looking at the AP. Nothing's
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  Speaker 2: coming up. So I said, well, I could see the
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  Speaker 2: Twin Towers from our newsroom.
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  Speaker 1: I'll walk over.
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  Speaker 2: Joe Bartlett's doing the news. And he has his back
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  Speaker 2: to the window, and he's typing away. For the nine
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  Speaker 2: o'clock news. I was like, Joe, turn around. From that
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  Speaker 2: moment on, when I told him to turn around, everything changed.
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  Speaker 2: And I, as, you know, Curtis was saying, I spent
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  Speaker 2: the morning with the listeners, these WOR listeners, and I
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  Speaker 2: meet them a lot. still 25 years later, and they'll
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  Speaker 2: talk about that day and how they stayed with us
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  Speaker 2: because they had no other place to go. And they
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  Speaker 2: felt like we were the family that they needed at
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  Speaker 2: that moment. And I didn't feel it for a very
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  Speaker 2: long time, the heaviness of that moment.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been here for a couple 9-11 anniversaries, and
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  Speaker 1: I've heard some of your coverage, and it was stellar.
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  Speaker 1: It was amazing. It was it was, you did a
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  Speaker 1: great public service on that day. And it was so
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  Speaker 1: important that you were on the air and that Joe
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  Speaker 1: Bartlett was on the air because my God, my God,
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  Speaker 1: his coverage was amazing because it was appropriately enough information
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  Speaker 1: mixed with raw emotion.
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  Speaker 2: Raw emotion.
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  Speaker 1: Because you were feeling it. You were feeling it in
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  Speaker 1: real time as it was happening outside the window. I'll
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  Speaker 1: share my story just very quickly because it's much different
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  Speaker 1: than than the people that were here, but it is
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  Speaker 1: an American experience. I was sound asleep and I was,
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  Speaker 1: cause I was anchoring the evening news and my wife
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  Speaker 1: was on the air at CBS at the time. And
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  Speaker 1: my wife called me and said, wake up. Do you,
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  Speaker 1: do you see what's going on? Do you, do you see?
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  Speaker 1: And I turned the television on and I said, well,
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  Speaker 1: planes fly into buildings that's happened before in New York.
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  Speaker 1: And she said, yeah, but this is, this looked like
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  Speaker 1: an airliner. And I said, really? And then as we're
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  Speaker 1: talking on the phone, the second plane hit the building.
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  Speaker 1: And I said, is that a replay? And she goes, no,
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  Speaker 1: that's another plane. And I said to her, we're under attack.
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  Speaker 1: I got to go. And I hung up the phone
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  Speaker 1: and I listened to the radio and they were still
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  Speaker 1: talking sports. And I called in and I said, do
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  Speaker 1: you understand what's going on? And they said, we can't
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  Speaker 1: get this one guy to shut up. I said, well,
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  Speaker 1: shut him up, shut him off. And she goes, can
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  Speaker 1: you go on? And from that moment, as I'm getting dressed,
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  Speaker 1: as I'm driving in, I was on the air talking
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  Speaker 1: about what was happening and I get into the newsroom
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  Speaker 1: and everybody's crying. And I couldn't understand it. I've never
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  Speaker 1: been in a newsroom where everybody was crying. That's the
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  Speaker 1: first time ever I've seen that. And because I've covered
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  Speaker 1: so many stories, I was wondering why I wasn't feeling that.
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  Speaker 1: But you're hyped up with an emotion of covering a story.
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  Speaker 1: I was on the air straight for four weeks covering
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  Speaker 1: the story.
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  Speaker 3: And I think our role became... trying to cut through
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  Speaker 3: all the misinformation that was coming out, the rumors, the innuendos. Again,
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  Speaker 3: there was no internet. It's not like you could take
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  Speaker 3: your flip phone and you could see what was going on.
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  Speaker 3: It was nothing. People were completely dependent on whatever information
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  Speaker 3: we could get our hands on, and we had the responsibility.
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  Speaker 3: not to put misinformation on the air.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a big one. I remember being so
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  Speaker 2: worried about what we were saying because I knew how
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  Speaker 2: it was affecting people. And we were extremely lucky to
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  Speaker 2: have George Meade in the studio with us, who is
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  Speaker 2: our traffic reporter, but had been a helicopter pilot. He
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  Speaker 2: probably did more miles around the city in a helicopter
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  Speaker 2: than anyone. And he initially looked at us and said,
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  Speaker 2: I cannot understand how a plane could be misguided. into
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  Speaker 2: that building on this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly. It was so obvious when it was the second plane,
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  Speaker 1: what was happening. I will tell you this. I was
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  Speaker 1: on the air too, not at the time, but in
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  Speaker 1: the days afterwards. And things were happening so fast and
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  Speaker 1: so quickly. And we had so many different news sources.
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  Speaker 1: And let me tell you that that was an amazing
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  Speaker 1: day for the media. They did an incredible job. Don't
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  Speaker 1: you wish they could go back to that, to being
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  Speaker 1: all together, just focusing on one story and making sure
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  Speaker 1: the correct information comes through. So it was a day
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  Speaker 1: that changed everything. And it certainly changed all of us individually,
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  Speaker 1: but it changed the media. But then again, we've all
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  Speaker 1: slipped back.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I remember on that day, more so than the
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  Speaker 3: heroic news people who ran down to the attack site,
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  Speaker 3: many of them who would have nightmares for the rest
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  Speaker 3: of their lives for what they saw, because they were
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  Speaker 3: down in the area when the implosion took place, was
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  Speaker 3: the fact that everybody understood what their responsibilities were. Because
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  Speaker 3: then later on, we learned about the attack on the Pentagon.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And then the one that nobody pays attention to now
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  Speaker 3: with everything leading up to the 25th anniversary, Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
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  Speaker 3: then realizing later that it was the Flight 93 that
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  Speaker 3: went down there that was on its way to crash
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  Speaker 3: into our nation's capital. And all of that, we had
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  Speaker 3: to sort through. And we had to depend on a
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  Speaker 3: lot of callers to be our eyes and ears out
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  Speaker 3: there in all these surrounding areas.
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  Speaker 1: But remember when the other planes crashed. there was this
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  Speaker 1: feeling around the country, oh my God, what's next? Nobody
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  Speaker 1: had any idea of how many planes could be up there.
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  Speaker 1: And every city was on high alert because they could
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  Speaker 1: be next. It was a frightening time after that happened
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  Speaker 1: for several days that, oh my God, we are vulnerable.
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  Speaker 1: What's next? But we want to hear from you. You
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: can leave us a talk back again at any time
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: during this morning to share your stories, remember a loved one,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: or just let us know how you're feeling today. You
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: can do that by going to 710WOR on the iHeartRadio app.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back with your thoughts.