It was a normal Tuesday morning for me on September 11th, 2001.. Spent that morning on a boring conference call with my day-job and then opened my computer to do some work on my side-job with AOL..
17 minutes later I got a phone call from my wife at the time.. She screamed at me and I will never forget.. “A F*CKING PLANE JUST HIT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER!!!” She witnessed it from her office just four blocks from the Towers…. We had no clue what was happening…
A few moments later, while still on the phone with her, Howard and the gang started talking about this and then just a few minutes later, the second plane hit.. This one flying RIGHT OVER her office building right into the second Tower!!
At that point, both of our phones went dead and we could only communicate via ISDN line utilizing AOL to IM with one-another.. What also kept me busy was CNN’s website crashing and AOL being the one to give them our servers to help with the overwhelming demand!!
With hours going by, and me working away transitioning servers to CNN as well as on AOL creating a community (chat-rooms and message-boards) for people to talk about the tragic events of the day, along with IM’ing with the Mrs… I was completely powerless to do anything except to listen to the Stern show and he and the gang completely saved my life – all through my stereo system!
Their coverage along with Chiusano and callers like Mariann from Brooklyn, Cabbie, Goodstein, Ralph, Zolar, Congressman Gary Ackerman and others completely kept me sane and allowed me to do the work on AOL’s servers, make sure my wife was safe and made it home OK!! Howard stayed on till after 12:30PM that day and made all of us feel better!
The next day on 9/12/01, Howard and the gang again did some of the best radio ever discussing the tragedy… With Fred, Robin and Artie making their way into the city and Cabbie, Gary and John all sitting in on the discussion…
September 11th, 2001 will always be etched in our minds and I would like to personally thank my personal hero, Howard Stern for making our lives more livable during this horrific time in our history!
Love to you and thanks for letting me share my story today!! Please tell us about your stories below!
Yours in service,
Nice recounting of events but I hope 9/11 never becomes a Nat’l holiday because we should never allow tragedy to define us.
Just came from Newark. There was a moment of silence in Penn Station and a motorcycle motorcade that lasted 20 minutes. The riders wore fire helmuts and carried American flags. These small, spontaneous outpourings, like the writing above by Scotty K, are heartfelt. I much prefer this to a national holiday which will quickly turn into a barbecue or sales event. God rest the souls of the victims and fallen heroes. Thanks for writing this, Scott.
This is beautiful, Scott. Thank you so much for sharing it with us all
Thanks everyone!!
Thank you Scott. I don’t think their is one person in the world who won’t remember where they were the moment it happened. I know I will never forget I was listening to Howard that morning. God Bless America…and Thank You Howard for having the courage to stay on air while the events unfolded before all of our eyes. Also for having the courage to come on the next day after. You will never know how much that really means to most of us!
Howrd was the best at keeping us informed of that terrible day. He continued to broadcast after both planes hit. I can not thank him enough for being fearless during that time. Thank you Howard much love to you. Howard is a genius and I will always support him!!
I’m posting this on 9-12 because we all tend to “tuck our tragedy away” after an anniversary. Never forgive…. and never forget.
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