September 11 Radio History

In 1945...At WSM Radio's Studio B in Nashville, Ernest Tubb recorded "It's Been So Long Darling," at what is believed to have been just the second recording session ever to take place in Music City.


In 1965...the Beatles' "Help!" album went #1 on American radio and stayed there for for 9 weeks.


In 1995..."Runaway" by Janet Jackson became the first single by a woman to make its debut in the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100.


In 2000...John R. Gambling does the last “Rambling With Gambling” show on WOR 710 AM


In 2001...Terrorist attack on New York City silenced four FM and nine TV stations.

The Events of September 11, 2001 | Graphiq

Video produced by Art Vuolo Jr:



Since three of the major television broadcast network owned-and-operated stations had their transmission towers atop the North Tower (One World Trade Center), coverage was limited after the collapse of the tower. The FM transmitter of National Public Radio station WNYC was also destroyed in the collapse of the North Tower and its offices evacuated. For an interim period, it continued broadcasting on its AM frequency and used NPR's New York offices to produce its programming.

The satellite feed of one television station, WPIX, froze on the last image received from the WTC mast; the image (a remote-camera shot of the burning towers), viewable across North America (as WPIX is available on cable TV in many areas), remained on the screen for much of the day until WPIX was able to set up alternate transmission facilities. It shows the WTC at the moment power cut off to the WPIX transmitter, prior to the towers' collapse.

During the September 11, 2001 attacks, WCBS-TV channel 2 and WXTV-TV channel 41 stayed on the air. Unlike most other major New York television stations, WCBS-TV maintained a full-powered backup transmitter at the Empire State Building after moving its main transmitter to the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The station was also simulcasted nationally on Viacom (which at the time owned CBS) cable network VH1 that day. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the station lent transmission time to the other stations who had lost their transmitters, until they found suitable backup equipment and locations.

The Emergency Alert System was never activated in the terrorist attacks, as the extensive media coverage made it unnecessary.

9/11 Simultaneous Broadcast from Six Networks of the first fifteen minutes



Television coverage of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and their aftermath was the longest uninterrupted news event in the history of U.S. television. The major U.S. broadcast and cable networks were on the air for days with uninterrupted coverage from the moment news first came that the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Millions of shocked television viewers watching live pictures of the World Trade Center saw the second plane hit and both buildings come down. In order to keep up with the constant flood of information, at 10:49 a.m. EDT, Fox News Channel began running continuous updates in the form of a news ticker that crawled along the bottom of the screen. This was so well received by viewers that it became a permanent feature on the channel and was adopted by many other news channels.


In 2005…Radio/Television sportscaster (CBS, ABC, NFL Films) Chris Schenkel, who covered professional bowling for 35 years along with various other sports, died of emphysema at the age of 82.


In 2009...screenwriter/producer Larry Gelbart succumbed to cancer at age 81.  He started writing for Danny Thomas on the radio, was a gag writer for Bob Hope, Jack Paar, Red Buttons and Sid Caesar before falling into the role for which he will be long remembered, the creative force behind the iconic M*A*S*H TV series.


In 2014…Songwriter (Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Silhouettes, Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like A Man, Dawn-Go Away, Rag Doll, Let's Hang On!, Navy Blue, The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine-Anymore, My Eyes Adored You, Lady Marmalade)/record producer (4 Seasons, Freddy Cannon, Mitch Ryder, Rays, Billy & Lillie, Diane Renay, Eddie Rambeau, Oliver)/singer (The Whiffenpoof Song)/conductor (Music To Watch Girls By)/label owner (DynoVoice)/Songwriter's Hall of Famer Bob Crewe died of complications from dementia at 83.

Bob Crewe (right) in 1967 with The Four Seasons

Crewe was a singer himself in the 1940s and ’50s, but he found his niche writing, co-writing and producing for a wide range of other artists, sometimes on record labels he started, including Dynovoice. His first hit, written with Frank Slay, was the 1957 single “Silhouettes”; a Top 10 hit for the Rays, it became a Top 10 hit again for Herman’s Hermits in 1965.

In 1964,  he produced “Devil With a Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly,” a hit for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

Nearly a decade later he wrote, with Kenny Nolan, “Lady Marmalade,” recorded by Labelle. Propelled by its provocative and irresistible chorus in French, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir,” it rose to No. 1 in 1975. Nearly three decades later, a new version of the song featuring Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Pink and Mya was heard in the soundtrack of the movie “Moulin Rouge.” It, too, became a No. 1 hit.

But it was in his work with the Four Seasons and the striking falsetto of Frankie Valli that Crewe established himself as a master purveyor of pop sentimentality. In less than 10 years he helped make the group one of the best known in the history of popular music.