Whenever an air check I'm recording off the radio truly matters to me, I do my best to encapsulate it well on the CD or cassette insert. On September 11, 2002, I thought it was important to hear as much reflection on the atrocious terrorist attacks from one year earlier as possible and summarize it as well as I could. If it were an ordinary day, I might have just written, "9/11/02--KWMU, KMOX, KYKY," on the label. Given the gravity of the coverage, I didn't think that was sufficient on that day. Instead, my notes on the CD label read like this:
"KMOX--Total Information A.M.--Doug McElvein & Nan Wyatt, Live From World's Fair Pavilion, Forest Park, Charles Jaco in New York; Tom Ackerman--Baseball as a diversion..."
"KYKY--Guy Phillips & Co.--How people's interests and behavior have changed since 9/11/01"
I reserved the most detailed notes, however, for the NPR affiliate:
"KWMU--Morning Edition--One year since terrorist attacks on U.S....Tribute plans, security alerts, Scott Simon live from Ground Zero, The Pentagon mostly repaired...Pennsylvania memorial; Eyewitnesses--i.e. Ginger & her cat--of World Trade Center disaster; New York police officers try to cope...Port Authority police force working 12-hour shifts; Remembering those who died; Bagpipe-and-drum procession plans; People consider how their world has changed...Lucy Kaplansky reflects & writes a song, 'Land Of The Living,' as a result."
As thoughtful as I remember all of those radio segments being, I haven't been able to listen to them since they originally aired. I'm going to break that streak today, however, and listen to this CD. On this 20th anniversary of such an awful day, it's the least I can do.
