On Sept. 11, 2001, the world watched the biggest tragedy of our time unfold before our eyes.
Even in the small town of Orillia, more than 900 kilometres away from the chaos at the World Trade Center complex in downtown Manhattan, fear and confusion reigned.
We all turned to our television sets or radio stations for answers, and in Orillia, we found the calming voice of the city’s most respected media man, Jack Latimer.
Latimer was broadcasting that morning from what is now known today as KICX 106.
Shortly after the 8:30 a.m. news, the station received a bulletin that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York.
“My first thought was, well that’s kind of sad… but maybe it was just a Cessna that clipped an antenna … I never had any imagination that a passenger jet had plowed into the tower,” Latimer recalls.
It seemed like seconds later when the station received another bulletin that a second plane had crashed into the Twin Towers, says Latimer.
“It was at that moment where we all stopped and went ... What?! It was one of those unbelievable things that you could never imagine.”
As the story unravelled, it became more and more unbelievable for Latimer, who was now tasked with breaking the tragic news to everyone in the surrounding area.
“We had people calling into the station and asking us, ‘Is this true?’ And they knew it was true, but they still needed confirmation by picking up the phone and talking to somebody. It was that big of a moment,” Latimer says.
“If you couldn’t be near a TV that day, you were glued to a radio; people wanted to be a part of the conversation. It was one of those moments that shows the importance of media.”
Within the time period of when the first attack took place at 8:46 a.m. to when Latimer’s morning show went off the air at noon, two planes had crashed into both towers at the World Trade Center complex, a plane had crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the United States airspace was shut down, a plane had crashed into a field just southeast of Pittsburgh, both towers had collapsed and five storeys of the Pentagon were in ruins.
Latimer calls it one of the most difficult days in broadcasting. However, it was the following day that presented the biggest challenge.
“How do you start a morning show that is supposed to wake people up and give them a smile to start their day, when the biggest disaster in the world has just unfolded?” Latimer says
“We couldn’t do humour on that show, and to do humour would have been an insult to every person out there. We just had to be ourselves, give the facts and speak to what was on our heart. And that’s what people came to radio for.”
As the days following 9/11 went by, and the smoke cleared from the rubble at the scenes of the tragedy, Latimer knew it was time to help local residents move forward.
“The following Monday, there were still those stories, but we had to get life back to normal. People needed reassurance that we can’t be down in this dark tunnel for ever, people wanted to be lifted from that.”
When we reflect on 9/11, we remember seeing pure evil, we remember feeling the emotions of fear and heartbreak, but Latimer says there was a much larger takeaway from 9/11.
“We get so caught up in this big thing ... whatever it might be that is happening to us in our lives. Maybe it’s we are going to be late for an appointment, or you didn’t get the sale ... Whatever the case may be, those things are so miniscule compared to what we could be facing,” Latimer says.
“If we can learn anything from that moment in history, it’s how precious life is.”
