I had just left a station in Toronto and It was my first day at a medium market TV station in Central Ontario.  I was hired to do sports at 6 and 11.   They had done some advertising and promos to mark my arrival.   I watched events unfold during the morning from home and rolled into the station mid afternoon to begin my shift.   All hell had broken loose in the newsroom and I was sent out with a cameraman to do local reaction type of stuff.  There was no sports going to air that evening and that continued.   I ended up working News for the next week or so and did not make my debut on the Sports desk for more than a week.   A very difficult week to be sure but we all pitched in.

I was reporting that day and was immediately sent by car to the airport where the Airports Authority was going to hold a news conference.
The word was that a hijacked plane was heading for Pearson Airport from the U-S.
It was a terrifying prospect.
When I arrived media crews were frantically setting up equipment and planning what we were going to do if we had either a plane crash at the airport, or more likely terrorists were going to hold hostages.
As things turned out we learned fairly quickly that there was no plane headed for Toronto.
But of course everything was going to be locked down.
I spent hours that day doing interviews with officials and also travelers who were grounded.
The airport officials actually banned we media from going into airport terminals, but I and several others sneaked into the terminals anyway, hiding equipment in brief cases or bags.
Eventually the authorities spotted us and threw us out but by then we had what we needed.
It was a day I won't certainly forget.
 

 

maybo wrote:

The attacks happened while I was en route to work at CP. I was the BN sports editor but sports was forgotten. Everyone — regular staffers, managers, anyone with a heartbeat — manned a computer and quickly turned around all of the material — mostly from AP — as fast as humanly possible. Hours sailed by. At one point, I stood up and my hands were shaking. I had to get myself back under control in a hurry. When I got home that night, my wife and I shared a long, wordless hug, knowing the world was forever altered.

I also remember feeling that the world had changed forever and it really shook me to my core. But we had a job to do and everything had to be put aside to do it. 

RadioActive wrote:

 And for those not in broadcasting, who did you choose to listen to or watch that awful day?

I don't work in radio but I'm a radio enthusiast. That bright September morning I was a bit late driving to the office because I had got home late last night from an out-of-town meeting. I had 680 news on in the car and they broke in with a news bulletin that a plane had crashed into The World Trade Centre. The World Trade Centre? Isn't that the building a terrorist had bombed a few years ago? "The building", you'll notice. Up until then I didn't know that the WTC was a complex of more than one building. Now it seemed that some pilot had run out of luck and crashed his small plane into "the building."

Just as I was pulling into the parking lot at our office they came on with another bulletin. A second plane had crashed into "the building." They cut away to a reporter on the scene (NBC, I believe.) He was sounding panicked and was losing it. They urged him to calm down.

When I got into the office the air was abuzz with the sounds of portable radios. From somewhere, that morning, someone came up with an old TV set. There wasn't much work done in our office that day.

By the end of the day the weather had turned grey and damp and stayed that way the rest of the week. All week we were glued to our TV at home watching those horrible images over and over.

Saturday morning was bright and clear again. I went out to put the finishing touches on the deck I had been building. The London Airport reopened for the first time that morning. The first plane off the ground was a very fast and very loud military plane. As I looked around the neighbourhood it seemed anyone who was outdoors had their heads back looking up with their hand raised to shield their eyes fron the sun, watching that plane. Would that be our reaction from now on whenever we heard a jet plane?

By noon hour I was finished up and it was time to christen the new deck. Me with a beer and my wife with her cup of tea. As we sat there in the warm sunshine we watched as the goldfinches were busy at the feeder. Their newly fledged chick were wobbling for balace on the perches. Almost at once, we both remarked how nicce that was to see after all the awful things we had been watching all week.

The next day (Sunday) I had to leave home to attend a week long staff meetiing with my employer. I didn't like leavving my wife alone, but this meeting had been planned for weeks and attendance was mandatory. Before I left we once again sat out on the deck and relaxed. I left after lunch and arrived at our meeting place (Blue Mountain Resort) around 4:00 PM.

As I was entering the hotel there was a dead bird down on the concrete. (looked like a blackbird)  By the misshape of its body it appeared that it had flown headlong into the plate glass window and broken its neck. I pushed it aside with the toe of my shoe and went in through the door. As I went in, I remember thinking a bird wouldn't knowingly fly into a building intent on mayhem. Only humans are capable of such evil.




 

Last edited by turkeytop (September 11, 2025 8:58 pm)

I was in a general staff meeting at our company when the president announced that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers. My first reaction was hasn't this happened before? Didn't a plane crash into the Empire State Building in 1945? Working in a warehouse we didn't have access to a television set. I didn't get to see the full devastation until I watched the CFTO News that evening. The other thing I remember is listening to WCBS that night to get a local perspective. Their coverage was outstanding.

Dale Patterson wrote:

I had originally planned to be in New York that week to visit my brother. My itinerary called for me to be at the World Trade Center on the Tuesday morning, yep September 11. I wanted to have breakfast on the Windows on the World restaurant. I hoped to get there around 8:30 then go up to the restaurant near the top of the building. The first plane hit at 8:46, the second at 9:02. Close call for me, but sad for those who were in the building, or buildings, that horrible day and for those on the planes. It's a day I'll never forget.

Close call indeed, Dale. That is an extremely chilling tale.