Hosts Julianna Forlano & Bob Hennelly
Sunday 9-13-26, WBAI Pacifica Radio will present a three-hour special using recently retrieved recordings from that day 25 years ago, which radically altered the course of world history for a generation.
At the time, WBAI was located at 120 Wall Street just blocks away from the massive conflagration and catastrophic collapse that killed close to 3,000 people. While broadcasters that relied on the World Trade Center were knocked off the air, WBAI’s transmitter was on top of the Empire State Building.
From the time the unprecedented attack got underway before 9 a.m. until WBAI was ordered out of their Wall Street location after 5 PM, the WBAI crew continued to cover the horrendous events as they were unfolding at great personal risk because they believed the community and the world needed to know what was happening.
On 9/11, veteran WBAI reporter Eric Williams was on the street and reported in realtime as one of the World Trade Center towers came crashing down.
Eric died of respiratory issues in 2016.
In the weeks and months that followed Sept. 11th WBAI Pacifica Radio continued its mission of community based and informed public broadcasting chronicling the city’s recovery efforts as well as neighborhood concerns about the air which the US EPA said was “safe to breathe.”
HOUR ONE: REWIND 9/11 WBAI-From breaking news to marathon rolling coverage.
HOUR 2: THE ONGOING PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS:
In the years since, more people have died from their toxic exposure to that air than were killed in the terror attack. The 9/11 WTC Health Program has saved and improved thousands of lives, yet only 145,000 of the 400,000 people exposed to the toxic air are enrolled, including thousands of young adults ordered back into City schools in the hot zone.
HOUR 3: CAN WE HIT BRAKES ON OUR NEVER ENDING WAR?
According to Brown University’s Watson Center Cost of War Project, in the aftermath of 9/11 the US so-called war on terror killed 900,000 people and cost $8 trillion dollars. The nation re-organized multiple agencies like the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and ICE under the Department of Homeland Security that is now terrorizing immigrant neighborhoods and detaining 50,000 people every month most of whom have committed no crime.
