Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Ten Years Later
Sunday
September 11, 2011
Note: Before I had ever heard the term "blogging", I began an online commentary on this website in April 2000. You can read my original 9/11/2001 story online. Though, looking back at it ten years later, here is some additional information to go with it, some I've never written about before.
To properly understand my story of what happened on September 11, 2001, it's important that I provide some context on where I was at the time and how I made it there. On the morning of 9/11/2001, I was less than six months into a job working as a producer on the morning show at WTSP-TV (10 News) in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL market. I had turned 24 years old less than a month before, and I was both the youngest producer and the most recently hired producer at 10 News at that time.
It was part hard work, part good fortune, and part finances that worked into me working as a full-fledged producer so young in a market as large at Tampa. In high school I was fortunate enough to work for The Tennessean newspaper, writing a music review column for the paper. In college I worked in radio at 91.5 WUEV (UE's owned-and-operated station) and in TV working as a production assistant at WEHT-TV (News 25), the ABC affiliate in town.
Balancing radio and TV and school and fraternity (Phi Kappa Tau) and other responsibilities was a challenge, particularly for someone like me who can struggle with organization, but somehow I made it all work. When I graduated in 1999, the timing worked out great for me, as News 25 was about to expand its morning show to two hours. I was stuck working overnights, but I was bumped up to a full-time associate producer role, where I had plenty of fill-in opportunities to actually produce newscasts on my own. Writing for TV is a unique thing, but I had worked enough weekends at News 25 in an associate producer capacity, learning from Eric Weisfeld and Brent Frazier (who had to anchor *and* produce their own newscasts) to have learned how to do it.
Soon enough I found myself anxious to make the jump to a new market. Often times you have to move on to move up, and I shotgunned resume tapes out for every job I could find. After landing a few interviews, I received an offer to be the full-fledged producer for WSAZ NewsChannel 3 (covering the Huntington/Charleston, WV market), which was about to expand its newscast from 90 minutes to two hours, just like News 25 had done roughly six months before. Two days after Christmas 1999, I had moved to Huntington, WV and made my debut as a producer.
Two major events marked my year-and-a-half in Huntington: Y2K and the 2000 Presidential election. Y2K ended up being a non-story, hype and fear but ultimately no widespread problems, as had been feared. The 2000 Presidential election was a marathon work day for me; I came in much earlier than normal figuring I'd need the extra time to craft my newscast. As the night wore on, there were projections made of both Al Gore and George W. Bush winning the election.
Midnight came and went... and there was still no decisive word. Florida was too close to call. As the early morning hours wore on, it became clear that we would be starting the newscast without knowing a winner. Along with that was having to cover all of the various state and local elections, which was a yeoman's chore, to say the least.
In January 2001, I was brought in to interview with WTSP-TV (10 News) in Tampa. By happenstance I had booked a trip to New York City to visit my friend Brook, who was in law school at NYU, along with other friends there in the city. A gypsy cab driver found his mark in me when I arrived from Huntington (via Detroit); he ended up getting me for about $65 on a cab ride that should have been nearly half of that. Live and learn.
I remember taking in NYC on my own during a day trip. I made it down near lower Manhattan, though as fate would have it, I didn't make it to the World Trade Center. My friend Nimesh had worked in the WTC in the late 1990s, though he was no longer living in the New York City area by that point. I had hoped to see the Statue of Liberty, but that didn't happen, either.
In a bizarre bit of travel booking, 10 News flew me in from NYC for the interview that day, and then that evening sent me back to Huntington. It was a whirlwind, interviewing and meeting the crew and then being shipped back to West Virginia later that day.
Citing budgetary concerns, 10 News took their time before finally extend me a job offer in March 2001. I accepted, even though it wasn't for much more money than I was making in Huntington. My contract with WSAZ specifically allowed me an out if I received a producing job offer in a top 20 market, Nashville, or New Orleans. At age 23, my goal of producing in a top 20 had been achieved in less than two years. I turned 24 in August 2001, right around when I visited my friend Josh in Boston. Notable about that is that I almost missed my flight, getting on the plane mere seconds before they were going to close the door. There was no half-hour cut-off for checking my baggage, which also made it on cutting it very, very close.
Also, I flew into (and out of) Boston's Logan International Airport, which was a departure point used by some of the hijackers on that horrible day the following month.
I went into the week of 9/11 feeling sick. I missed work on 9/10/2011, as I was quite ill. Maybe it had something to do with being in the infamous WTSP "sick building" that I've written about on here before. Or maybe it had something to do with the past Saturday night, 9/8/2011, where my friends Desi and Amy and I hit a nightclub called Empire down on 7th Avenue in walking distance from my apartment in Ybor City, from the fantastic Camden Ybor era. Or maybe I caught a bug from one of my numerous sick co-workers.
Whatever the source of my ailment, it was enough to where I had to call out sick on Monday, 9/10/2011. After NyQuil and rest, I sucked it up and went in to work on Monday night to prepare for the next morning's newscast. At that point I was hardly 100%, but I was well enough to fight my way through it and produce the 5-6 a.m. hour of the newscast.
The big story of the morning was the visit of President George W. Bush to Sarasota, his forever memorable visit to Emma E. Booker elementary school. While Sarasota was to the south of Tampa/St. Pete, it was part of our coverage area and thus we covered it. When the President visits your area, it tends to be a big news story.
What happened from there for me is best explained in my original account of the horrible day. Madden 2002 had come out weeks before and I planned to play some of that until NyQuil put me to sleep. But because I was such a fan of the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, I had a radio playing his show while I played my game. Without that, I might have gone to sleep blissfully unaware of the terror attack that was underway on the United States. Instead, shock overpowered NyQuil, and I watched the unfolding news coverage well until noon. It's the only time in my life, before or since, that NyQuil hasn't knocked me out.
The irony of hearing the first report through Bubba's show is that, less than a year and a half later, I went to work for the BTLS show. It's interesting how life works out sometimes.
Brook later told me that he didn't go down toward the WTC towers to see the scene unfolding. Some of his friends did. They saw the jumpers, the bodies falling. Brook told me he's glad he didn't see that. I'm glad for him. There are some things you can't unsee.
Some months later, I remember being at one of the social get-togethers that the Camden Ybor staff used to hold monthly which I enjoyed attending. I recall talking with some people who I'd just met, including a guy who mentioned being from the New York area. The topic of 9/11 came up, and I asked him if he knew anyone who died in the attack. Instantly, I regretted my decision. He looked away, clearly affected, and muttered that, yes, he did.
Ten years later, 9/11 is a term that forever brings back memories for those who remember exactly where they were when they heard that news on that horrible day. I'm lucky that I didn't have any friends or family who perished on 9/11. But many, many people did, and for them the annual anniversary of 9/11 is a constant reopening of the emotional wounds left by the horrific events of that day.
They say 9/11/2001: never forget. Most people who lived through that awful day, will ever forget -- even if they want to do so. Some things are too profound, too all-encompassing, and too tragic, to ever escape the collective memory of those affected.
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