Greg Brady and Ben Mulroney (who is going to be guest hosting the morning show the rest of this week) were reminiscing on AM640 Tuesday morning when the topic of huge news events came up. And that led to one of those rare exchanges about the behind-the-scenes in broadcasting.

Mulroney recalls being on a live show, that involved still-new chat rooms, when 9-11 happened. He related that the whole tone of the program changed in an instant and he was brand new to the business and somehow had to cope with it all. 

But it was Brady's story I found most interesting. On August 31, 1997, he was working at CKLW when he heard that Princess Diana had been in a car crash. It was evening in Windsor and no one knew then how serious it was. He thought, "oh she's been in an accident. That's interesting," and then went to the movies. (It was "G.I. Jane" he recalled.) 

By the time he got home, his answering machine (no real texts on cell phones then) was filled with message after message from the station asking, "Where are you? Get in here now!" It turns out the late Mark Elliot, a much lamented SOWNY member, was on the air doing his "People Helping People" show, and when it was announced that Diana had died, the call volumes started changing. 

"Callers were openly bawling on the air," Brady remembered, and he rushed into the station to help cover this huge breaking story, as Elliot became overwhelmed by the sheer emotion and the number of callers. He was on the air taking calls until 4 AM.

An interesting memory of a very terrible night. 

I was off on vacation that evening and also remembering hearing she was in a crash. I thought, well that's sad, but she'll be fine. And then I went out for an hour long bike ride in the August heat. By the time I came back, the story the whole world would be talking about had changed. And it was wall-to-wall coverage everywhere after that. But luckily, I got to finish my week off.