5 Years Ago At This Moment

I'm here at work and I have CNN Pipeline on streaming the original coverage of 9/11/01. 5 years ago at this moment, I was sitting in the editing suite of my college television station meeting with my producer trying to come up with some stories for that nights show. I was racing around as on 9/12/01, I was supposed to leave for a news directors convention. That never happened.

The moment the pictures of the World Trade Center came up on our screens, our lives changed. From our perspective at that tv station, we immeidately went into action. WE were on the air by 9:30. I was live on the air in shorts and a t-shirt for the first hour or so before someone could go and get a suit for me.

Our studio wasn't even set up to do television yet. We were setting up that afternoon. So, we quickly set up lights etc. and went live for the day. I pulled together whatever crew I could find and we made it work. As a CNN affiliate, we had amazing access to so many live pictures. We mobolized our reporters - told the story of Clarion reacting, told the story of a pilot who was forced to land at the Clarion airport who did see the towers on fire. We reported the Shanksville crash before CNN even had it. It was a sad and scary day, however a day that everyone at that tv station learned so much.

I was on the air for hours and hours. Most of it is a blur still. We did interviews with local residents, local politicans, tried to explain what we were seeing on the screen and at times were just speechless as the news kept coming in.

At a few points, we pulled off the air and re-grouped to get ourselves on the same page. That was a near impossible process as the news kept changing throughout the day. My staff did better than could have been expected. We were all stressed and scared. I've gone back and watched the tapes of our coverage a few times - I am still amazed at what we did and still amazed at what really happened that day. Everytime I watch the tape, I find something else that I forgot happened.

I still thank our faculty who did so much to help that day. They rolled their computers into our studio to help us stay on the air. They went and bought the entire staff lunch and dinner because we were so busy, we forgot to eat.

We were all so exhausted at the end of the day. We learned so much from that day. I think we've ALL learned so much from that day as we look back at it now.

I continue to watch the re-boradcast of CNN's coverage. I still find myself saying wow and having that apprehensive feeling I did 5 years ago at this exact same time.