9/11 Radio Stories
Season 11, Episode 09
September 18, 2023
Stories behind the images
Re-Imagined Radio presents a story of what happened behind the images of September 11, 2001, when four passenger airplanes were hijacked and turned into weapons. Behind televised images of New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, airline officials, air traffic controllers, and federal agents talked, frantically trying to learn what was happening, and determine how to stop it.
Access the episode script
Production
Contents
Samples from recorded radio and telephone calls between civilian, federal, and military air traffic controllers to provide a a moment-by-moment description as four passenger airplanes are hijacked and turned into terrorist weapons, September 11, 2001.
Credits
Written, Produced, and Hosted by John F. Barber
Sound Design, Music, and Post Production by Marc Rose
Promotional Graphics by Holly Slocum
Significance
This episode provides a chronological soundtrack for the televised events we watched the morning of September 11. 2001. As you listen, note how everyone involved struggles to deal with the challenges. Read a full transcript→ at the Rutgers Law Review website.
Producer's Notes
When I discovered these audio files I realized they tell a story behind the images of September 11, 2001.
Connecting them with a chronological narrative of events, provided the basic structure for this episode.
And a model for a new genre of future Re-Imagined Radio documentary episodes.
— John F. Barber
Background
Tuesday morning, 11 September 2001, four passenger airplanes left airports in Boston, New York, and Newark bound for California. These airplanes were hijacked and turned into weapons.
Two were crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. One into the Pentagon building in Washington, DC. The fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania following a passenger revolt.
Endless television loops showed us the results. But not the many, simultaneous, stories evolving in real time behind these scenes as airline officials, air traffic controllers, and federal agents talked, frantically trying to learn what was happening, and determine how to stop it. Their telephone and radio communications were recorded. From those sources we offer this story of what happened behind the images of 9/11.
Promotion
Press
Graphics
