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Mark interviews legendary sportscaster Warner Wolf. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: On 710WOR, Mark Simone, The Mark Simone Show. Well, it's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the 25th anniversary of September 11th. 25 years later, it's
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  Speaker 1: hard to believe. That morning, Imus was on the air.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, Warner Wolf, big part of the Imus show,
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  Speaker 1: but was not on that morning, but suddenly became a
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  Speaker 1: big part of that show. Of course, the legendary sportscaster,
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  Speaker 1: the best TV sportscaster of all, And he's with us
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  Speaker 1: right now. Warner Wolf, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: All right. Thank you very much, Mark. Yeah. I wasn't
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  Speaker 2: on IMAS that morning because I only did Monday, Wednesday,
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  Speaker 2: and Friday. And Sid Rosenberg did Tuesday and Thursday. So,
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  Speaker 2: of course, this was a Tuesday.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. But you lived downtown.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we lived on North Moore Street.
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  Speaker 1: If you call that living.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. wow that was a great neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah that's where John F. Kennedy Jr. lived David Letterman
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  Speaker 1: lived on that street yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Right across the street he lived yeah other people Nathan
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  Speaker 2: Lane Richard Widmark De Niro yeah but I don't I
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  Speaker 2: don't know that they were all there on 9-11 anyway
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  Speaker 2: you know the thing is I just say over and
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  Speaker 2: over again When you see a tragic event, you can
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  Speaker 2: see it in the movies, you can see it later
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  Speaker 2: on television. When you see it live, it just sticks
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  Speaker 2: in your head to this day. You say it's something
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  Speaker 2: you want to forget, but you can't forget it, especially
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  Speaker 2: if you see it live. The first inclination was... My
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  Speaker 2: wife and I were sleeping late that morning. It was
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  Speaker 2: about 9.45. 8.45.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And this plane went right over. We lived on the
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  Speaker 2: top floor. And this plane went so close to our roof.
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  Speaker 2: I said, what the heck? What is that? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it was like a monster plane going to land on
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  Speaker 2: your roof. And, of course, that was the first plane.
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  Speaker 2: And then moments later, it hit the tower. And, gosh,
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  Speaker 2: we opened the blinds. Our blinds weren't open. We said, oh, look,
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  Speaker 2: he just made a hole in the tower. My first
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  Speaker 2: thought was, in 1945, a poor bomber, a U.S. bomber,
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  Speaker 2: I think it was a B-52, Hit the Empire State Building.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, by accident.
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  Speaker 2: Because there were fog.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And he was misguided. I said, gee, that must be
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  Speaker 2: the same case. But then you could see, oh, wait
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  Speaker 2: a minute. And now, oh, my gosh. And I think
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  Speaker 2: the worst sight was seeing people jumping out of the window.
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  Speaker 2: That was, oh, my gosh. That was just horrible.
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  Speaker 1: And then you called Imus. He was alive on the
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  Speaker 1: air at the time, right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. I did. I did call on them.
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  Speaker 1: I think we have that. You want to hear it?
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  Speaker 2: Sure.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is it. This is the I Miss the
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  Speaker 1: Morning show that morning.
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  Speaker 2: MSNBC has just flashed on my screen. It looks like
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  Speaker 2: there is a A plane has crashed into the World
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  Speaker 2: Trade Center?
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  Speaker 1: We got Warner on the phone. He's looking at it
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  Speaker 1: right now. Warner?
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  Speaker 2: Hi, man.
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  Speaker 1: What's the deal?
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  Speaker 2: Something hit the World Trade Center. I think it was
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  Speaker 2: a plane. I heard it right over my head, and
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  Speaker 2: the explosion rocked the building. Really? And I'm looking at
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  Speaker 2: it right now. The smoke is just bellowing out of
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  Speaker 2: the World Trade Center. I mean, it's horrible.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. So... Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, here's one more as you learn more. Sure you
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  Speaker 1: have any other information, Mark, from anybody? Not yet. We're waiting.
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  Speaker 1: Warner's got actually the breaking news here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was the plane. I heard it.
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  Speaker 2: I heard the plane. I heard it. I said, my
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  Speaker 2: wife was close. And that sounds awful low. And then, boom!
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so at that time, everybody still thought it was
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  Speaker 1: an accident.
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  Speaker 2: And then... Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: But then you realize, oh my gosh, it wasn't.
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  Speaker 1: Were you looking out when you saw the building collapse?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to the roof right after that, and
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  Speaker 2: that was horrible. Saw them both collapse. My gosh, I
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  Speaker 2: think that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, the first building collapsed, and I remember
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  Speaker 1: I'm watching television in the Today show. He said, well,
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  Speaker 1: from now on, there'll just be one World Trade Center tower.
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  Speaker 2: Oh.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: But when it collapsed, listen to this. This is you.
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  Speaker 1: with Imus.
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  Speaker 2: Warner? It's gone. What? It's gone.
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  Speaker 1: What's gone?
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  Speaker 2: The tower. It's gone. It's gone. It collapsed. It's gone.
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  Speaker 2: It's not there.
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  Speaker 1: The whole tower?
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  Speaker 2: The whole tower. It's gone. There's only one tower. Oh, God.
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  Speaker 2: This is horrible. It's gone. It's not there. It disappeared.
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  Speaker 2: It just collapsed.
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  Speaker 1: Now, when that happens, that's when the smoke started coming, right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh. The bellowing smoke, it was black. And
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  Speaker 2: you could see the smoke was going into, at that time,
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  Speaker 2: New Jersey. And you could start to smell something. Wait
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  Speaker 2: a minute, this isn't right. And then later... We had
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  Speaker 2: a balcony on this top floor. I'm talking about weeks later,
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  Speaker 2: you could still smell this unusual odor. I always try
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  Speaker 2: to describe it as a sweet and sour odor. It
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  Speaker 2: wasn't healthy. And they were telling us that it's nothing,
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  Speaker 2: but I think everyone in the neighborhood knew, wait a minute,
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  Speaker 2: This is not normal. And we knew something was wrong.
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  Speaker 2: You were inhaling the burning material and pesticides. It was
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  Speaker 2: a terrible scene.
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  Speaker 1: But you continued to live there. You went back to
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  Speaker 1: that area. Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: We lived there four more years. It's a good neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: You could say it was never the same, and I'm sure.
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  Speaker 2: Many people feel that way.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you remember after that, they said, nobody will
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  Speaker 1: ever live downtown again. Nobody will ever come down here again.
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  Speaker 1: It became the hottest neighborhood in the world after that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, a lot of famous people lived down there.
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  Speaker 1: So what made you finally move uptown, back to midtown?
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  Speaker 2: You know what? My wife always had this dream that
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  Speaker 2: there was going to be a, you know, if there
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  Speaker 2: was ever a flood down there, you would really be
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  Speaker 2: wiped out. And she was afraid of that. So we did.
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  Speaker 2: We moved uptown.
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  Speaker 1: Well, she wasn't wrong. We saw that with Hurricane Sandy.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of it flooded.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'll tell you, you know, I'm thinking the
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  Speaker 2: similarities between 9-11 and Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, both
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  Speaker 2: almost 3,000 people killed. I'm sure 25 years after Pearl Harbor,
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  Speaker 2: which would have been 1966, people were saying the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: reminiscing like we are today.
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  Speaker 1: Well, actually, I checked on it this week, calling people
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  Speaker 1: in Hawaii. Apparently, 85 years later, they still do it
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  Speaker 1: every year. It's a big event every year.
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  Speaker 2: No kidding. Well, that's good.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: That's nice.
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  Speaker 1: And this will be the first year they'll do it
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  Speaker 1: without a single survivor alive.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, my.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, all those people buried underneath it. Yeah. It was
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  Speaker 2: the Arizona, I think.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Warner Wolf, great having you with us. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: for the insight into that day.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Mark. I just hope that young kids think
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  Speaker 2: about it. If a kid was only born after 2001,
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  Speaker 2: if he's 10 years old now, big deal. Hopefully, They'll
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  Speaker 2: just keep it alive in the schools. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's one other thing. I'll never forget, I saw a, man,
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  Speaker 2: one of the first transponders afterwards, and everybody was just
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  Speaker 2: covered with smoke and dirt. And he said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's not only the people that were killed, He said
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  Speaker 2: it's the ripple effect of 3,000 people killed, of families
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  Speaker 2: and friends. And he was right. I mean, it just
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  Speaker 2: extends to, I mean, 3,000. are dead, but it did extend.
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  Speaker 2: There was a ripple, there is a ripple effect still.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Well, Warner Wolfe, great talking to you. We'll have
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  Speaker 1: you back under normal circumstances.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Mark.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for all the insight. Take care. The great Warner Wolfe.
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  Speaker 1: Mark Simone here on the 25th anniversary of 9-11 on 710WOR.