(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
9/11: Never Forget…
It’s been 18 years since nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives on that tragic day in September of 2001, but for those who lived through it and watched in horror around the country, the memories are as vivid and fresh as ever.
Today is a day of reflection and remembrance for all Americans as we offer our prayers and condolences to the families who experienced the tragedy on the most personal level.
People who were too young on 9/11 to even remember their lost loved ones, and others for whom the grief is still raw, paid tribute with wreath-layings and the solemn roll call of the dead Wednesday as America marked the 18th anniversary of the worst terror attack on U.S. soil.
President Trump laid a wreath at the Pentagon, telling victims’ relatives there: “This is your anniversary of personal and permanent loss.”
“It’s the day that has replayed in your memory a thousand times over. The last kiss. The last phone call. The last time hearing those precious words, ‘I love you,’” the President said.
Executive Producer Matt Hibbeln was working at WIBC on September 11, 2001, and he graciously shared his experience with listeners on the Hammer and Nigel Show.
“I remember that we were doing everything at the station to localize what was happening and explain to people what was going on because people around the city were scared. We didn’t know whether there would be more attacks, more things happening in every city, and things were entirely shut down in downtown Indianapolis. And we continued to do as much news coverage as we could until eventually we just had to turn it over to ABC news.”
Hibbeln told Hammer and Nigel that 9/11 changed WIBC as a radio station dramatically.
“We had to really reinvent as a radio station regardless of what the shows had been in the past. The expectation of the audience had changed, which forced us to transform from this much more full-service radio station to one that was hyperfocused on what was happening with the military; what was happening with the news of the day and the economy, and the radio station was different from that day on.”
One of Hibbeln’s memories of that day was the eerie silence downtown and the absence of planes in the sky.
“There were no planes overhead because they had all been grounded. So there was nothing in the sky, no one was out or driving around downtown, and it was so uncharacteristically quiet downtown.”
Click the link below to hear Hammer and Nigel’s full interview with Matt Hibbeln.
