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This past month we produced a three hour LIVE broadcast special 9/11 Remembered 25 Years Later.
On Sept. 11th we were located at 120 Wall Street, close to the East River—just blocks from the World Trade Center complex. But unlike other broadcast outlets that had their transmitter on top of the ill-fated World Trade Center, WBAI’s transmitter was on top of the Empire State Building way uptown.
That meant that WBAI’s news team, then led by Jose Santiago, could continue broadcasting LIVE reporting the horrific events of that day just blocks away providing our listeners with vital real time information on the multi-pronged terrorist attack.
Several weeks ago, thanks to the work of Pacifica’s archivist Brian DeShazor, we were able to retrieve tapes of our colleagues' heroic work on that day and in the very difficult period that followed.
WBAI’s on air team, which included Majorie Moore, Jose Santiago and Paul DeRienzo, stayed on the air LIVE while the attack itself was underway just blocks away observing and reporting on the unprecedented events ahead of the Associated Press. They were on the frontlines of history.
In pretty short order, WBAI was interviewing eyewitnesses who described the menacing cloud of smoke and dust that permeated throughout lower Manhattan and beyond. The WBAI team was joined by our sister station WPFW, based in Washington D.C. and the Pacifica National News Network team.
On that day, WBAI and the Pacifica Radio Network relied heavily on the veteran radio news reporter Eric Williams for his vivid and fearless reporting that captured the essential details clearly and concisely without regard for his own well-being. Eric died in 2016 of respiratory issues.
WBAI stayed at the 120 Wall Street location until they were ordered out after 5 PM by the National Guard that day the Twin Towers fell and it felt like the world was knocked off its axis.
We have many more hours to go through and there are so many people living and dead who played a role in WBAI’s heroic coverage that day. In the months and years that followed Pacifica and Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now covered critically the US war on terrorism that would destabilize so much of the world, result in 900,000 additional deaths and create the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
And here, close to home WBAI carried the voices that countered in real time the official but fraudulent pronouncement by US EPA Christie Todd Whitman that the toxic asbestos laden air in lower Manhattan was safe to breathe.
We know that on 9/11 343 Firefighters died and that 600 active and retired firefighters have died since. And while close to 3,000 people died in the fire and the collapse, it's estimated that 9,000 people have died that are participants in the Victims Compensation Fund and the 9/11 World Trade Center Health Program.
Official estimates are that 400,000 students, residents, commuters, workers and first responders were exposed to a myriad of toxins that can cause dozens of cancers and other life altering diseases. In our second episode we explored the 9/11 World Trade Center public health crisis which is part of the overall national meltdown of healthcare that includes hundreds of hospital closures and millions of Americans losing their healthcare.
In all the years since 9/11 we have been there for our listeners. Now, we need our listeners to be there for us.
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