Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Warner Wolf, legendary sportscaster Interview

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Warner Wolf, legendary sportscaster Interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On this 25th anniversary of the attacks on the World
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Trade Center in New York, there were several people that
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: saw it happen, including the legendary sportscaster, our own Warner Wolf,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: who was on the air at the time with Don Imus.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: MSNBC has just flashed on my screen. It looks like
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: there is a A plane has crashed into the World
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Trade Center? We got Warner on the phone who's looking
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: at it right now. Warner?
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Hi, man.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: What's the deal?
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Something hit the World Trade Center. I think it was
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: a plane.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I heard it right over my head, and the explosion
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: rocked the building. Really? And I'm looking at it right now.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: The smoke is just bellowing out of the World Trade Center.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's horrible.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The great Warner Wolf is on the air with us now. Warner,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: can you... further describe that moment in retrospect?
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll tell you what, Larry, the plane, we lived
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: on the top floor on North Moore Street in Tribeca.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: And that plane, I thought it was going to hit
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: our roof. I've never heard a plane closer in my life.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: My wife and I were getting up. I wasn't working
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: that day. And, man, that plane, I tell you, it
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: was unbelievable. The sound was incredible. I can still hear it. And,
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: you know, you can see all the movies and TV, films, everything.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: There's nothing like when it happened. There's nothing like seeing
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: it live. It's still with me. We were about 10
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: blocks from the World Trade Center. We could see it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: lit up every night right out of a window. When
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: that first plane hit, we said, man, what is it,
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: a misguided pilot? It was like the bomber pilot. You
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: remember the bomber hit the Empire State Building in 1945?
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: I said, man, look at this. Oh, but wait a minute. Uh-oh.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: started watching and i thought they were people were throwing
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: tables and chairs out of the window but man it
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: was they were jumping out of the window that was
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: it was a horrible sight and then uh i guess
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: it was well 15 16 17 minutes later uh the
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: plane came around and uh hit the other tower and
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: now he said oh man this is this is no
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: accident so i i ran on the roof of my
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: building and i could see everything and um oh boy
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: the fire and just terrible things you know it's uh
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: and i saw the buildings collapse those are the worst
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: thing i've ever seen i saw them just Oh man,
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: am I really seeing this? This was horrible.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: It's gone.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: It collapsed. It's gone.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: It's not there. The whole tower.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: The whole tower.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: It's gone.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: There's only one tower.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Oh God, this is horrible.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: It's gone. It's not there.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It's like it disappeared.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: And there's no way the first responders can ever get
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: enough credit for going into that burning building. The two towers.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: And I'll tell you one more thing. We had a balcony.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: And I'd say for at least a month, there was
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: this unusual smell coming from the tower. And they said, no,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: it's nothing. It was a sweet, sour odor. I've never
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: smelled anything like it. It would be like a bad perfume,
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: I guess the way I'd describe it. And it was
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: the burning of the metals and the materials of the
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: World Trade Center. So that was all unhealthy down there.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: And as we're finding out now still, I'll tell you, Larry,
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: I still can't believe it was 25 years ago today.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Warner, your eyesight on the spot, announcement on the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: IMAS show of what it was like, even though there
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: was no Internet at that time, things didn't go viral online.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Your announcement of what it was like was heard across
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: the nation because people were desperately trying to get information.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: And your voice, I must say, even though I was
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: on the competing network, WABC, your voice resonated for an
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: entire nation that grew.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Up with you.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: Well, I never stopped to think of it that way
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: or looked at it that way. It was just what
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: I was seeing myself. It was like just... Telling the story,
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: my gosh, you know, I'm still uncomfortable talking about it
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: because it makes me think about it. I try not
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: to think about it, but I think, like I said earlier,
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: you could see all the TV and movies of it
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: years later. There's nothing, when you see something in person,
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: as you probably know, it just sticks with you. It
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: stays with you. And just, you know, oh, man, see
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: those people. God, those poor souls.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you were there just in the neighborhood for
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the excavation, the search for bodies, the rebuilding, all of it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Can you talk us through some of that?
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Oh, I was, oh, my gosh. I was still on
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: WCBS at that time. So, you know, I went down
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: there and brought a camera and, gosh, it You could
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: see the weary workers, and they had dogs, you know,
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: because they were sniffing out to see where people were.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: It was just a dreadful, just a terrible scene. If
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: you go through it once, hopefully that's it. But, like,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: I remember one of the responders said, you know, it's,
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: It's bad enough that we have close to 3,000 people dead,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: but it's the ripple effect. All the families from 3,000 people,
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: friends and family, it's not just... I'll tell you. When
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: my wife and I moved to Tribeca, we said, oh boy,
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: this is great. You know, nothing... Never thought that... We
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: were about 10 blocks from the World Trade Center. We
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: used to... You know, I'd come home at night. It
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: was a beautiful sight, the two of them. We'd look
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: out the window. There they are. What a great sight.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: You can't see this anywhere else.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I will tell you, Warner, that was powerful to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: hear that from you since you experienced the whole thing
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and how it haunts you to this day. And thank
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: you so much for sharing that, the great Warner Wolf.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Warner.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: All right, gentlemen. Thank you.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you. He certainly sounded different, didn't he? I mean,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Warner Wolf, you remember being fast-paced and getting through sports events,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: but when he's remembering it, you could almost feel that
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: he was still seeing it.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was on the fan with Imus in
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: the morning. And remember the night before, Monday Night Football,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: the Giants versus the Denver Broncos. So they're a sports station.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: That's all they're talking about at that time. And then
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Warner was magnificent because where he lived with his wife,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: he could almost reach out and touch the Twin Towers.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And then to be able to experience it and relate
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: it on WFAN was magnificent because it got those guys
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: all focused on, hey, forget sports. Everything else goes to
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: the sidelines. That's all anybody was talking about for days
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: and days and days thereafter.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: And we're proud to have him here now. Let's get
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: some more reflections from our listeners.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Bob, recalling Captain Kathy Mazza, who was a cardiac surgery
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: nurse with me at St. Francis Hospital, went on to
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: become Port Authority policewoman. And after 10 years there, she
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: became the first female captain and commandant of the Police
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Academy in New Jersey. She came over with new recruits
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: to the buildings, to the towers, saved many, many lives there.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: And that day, she was like a sister to me,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: dearly missed. And thanks for remembering her. Kathy Mazza, Captain
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Kathy Nancy Mazza, was killed on September 11th, as he said,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: while attempting to rescue the victims trapped in the World
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Trade Center. She was leading a group of people downstairs
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: when the building started to collapse. Using her sidearm, Captain
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Mazza shot out glass walls, enabling many to escape. Captain
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Mazza was the first female commander of the Port Authority
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: of New York and New Jersey's police department. She had
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: served with the Port Authority of New York and New
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Jersey police for 13 years. Others survived because of her.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: She did not survive. She has a husband and mother
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: that live on and still remember her. They're going to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: be there today. She was only 46 years old. Kathy Mazza,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: one of the great heroes. Thanks for that talk back
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and getting us to remember her. Kathy Mazza was one
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of the heroes of 9-11.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: And remember, that was a Port Authority building, two buildings.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Larry Silverstein had just purchased it, you know, private owner operator.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: So the Port Authority was embedded there. In that project
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: from beginning to end of the World Trade Center site
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: and all the employees of the Port Authority who valiantly
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: stayed on and did not flee as almost most people
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: would have. I mean, we're trained. You don't run into
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the belly of the beast. You run away. They stood,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: they ground, they didn't leave, and they did everything they
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: could to help others.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Well, how about her story? She went in and saved lives.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: She shot out a window so others could live, even
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: though she was sacrificing herself. Correct. An amazing story. Thanks
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: so much for that talk back and getting us to
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: remember Kathy Mazza on this day. Well, at Ground Zero,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: they're now getting ready for the ceremony. We're going to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: go back down there to talk to Natalie Migliore. And
• 10:58
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• 11:03
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• 11:07
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• 11:12
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• 11:14
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• 11:18
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• 11:22
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• 11:30
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• 11:39
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• 11:48
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• 11:53
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• 11:57
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• 12:03
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• 12:07
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• 12:10
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• 12:17
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• 12:20
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