Pat Harvey of CBS LA News had been speaking about her memories of September 11, 2001, only briefly when she made an unexpected admission. “I’m shaking a little bit right now,” shared Harvey, her voice softening. “It was absolutely horrible. It’s hard to put into words.” Harvey, who anchors the late evening newscasts, recalled being woken by a phone call from her husband, learning of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center.
Veteran anchors, including NBC4’s Colleen Williams and former Fox 11 anchor Steve Edwards, also described the challenging day. They remembered rushing to their newsrooms to cover the unfolding tragedy, an event still lingering in their memories as the nation observes its 25th anniversary. Students and others at UCLA watched the live television coverage of the New York City skyline and shared those difficult moments.
“Everyone at the station had the same face — a shocked face, almost hollow,” said Williams, who anchors KNBC’s 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. “We couldn’t comprehend the enormity of it. Watching it as a group provided some comfort, but not much.”
Edwards, who left Fox 11 in 2017 and now hosts a podcast with former colleagues, compared the event’s gravity to previous news stories. “There’s no comparison to whatever events I had covered before — all other moments fail,” he said. The anchors described handling their duties amid personal fears, including concerns about family safety.
Harvey recalled her initial reaction upon hearing the news from her husband. “My husband was out of town, and he called to say, ‘Oh my God, you should turn on the television.’ The first tower had already been attacked.” She described her attempts to process the horrifying visuals and the grounding reassurance her husband provided during their conversation.
Williams’ experience was similarly jarring. Woken by a call from her husband, a commercial and military pilot, she was urged to turn on the TV. “This was no accident. It was an act of terrorism,” she realized. Williams worried about her brother flying commercially on the East Coast, adding to her disorientation as a mother of an 8-year-old.
Edwards shared his recollections of being informed by his weather reporter colleague that she would be late and later by his wife about the air crash. Upon arriving at the Fox 11 studio in West Los Angeles, the newsroom was in “controlled chaos” as they pieced together news for broadcast.
“We didn’t want to speculate, because that would not serve any purpose,” Edwards reflected, as they navigated the unprecedented coverage.
Each announcer conveyed profound moments of professional and personal overlap, underscored by memories that continue to resonate today. Edwards noted the temporary unity experienced in the wake of the tragedy, acknowledging that it was a fleeting moment of togetherness in the face of adversity.
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