I was home during the 9/11 attacks and watched as events unfolded.
At some point, I got curious as to which stations had interrupted normal programming to broadcast news of the event. Of course, the networks preempted their regularly scheduled broadcasts to report on the events. BBC America went to special BBC news. Some cable stations that I suspect are minimally staffed (TLC might have been one of them) kept broadcasting their scheduled shows.
The channels I didn’t check were MTV, VH1, etc. Did anyone happen to scan through those to see what kind of coverage they were showing?
IIRC, MTV and VH1 showed CBS news instead of normal programming. Or at least, that’s what they were doing by the time I’d gotten home from school (it was my senior year of high school), which would’ve been about 2:00-2:30pm.
As I recall, CBS2 out of New York was carried by the Viacom cable networks, with an appropriate on-screen graphic explaining the change. FOX and ABC/Disney type channels carried Fox News Channel’s feed. Corporate ownership had to do with it, as you may have gathered.
A few smaller channels such as Food Network and Home and Garden Television merely went off the air, save a black, flower-emblazoned slide saying something like “Due to the tragic events in New York, we are suspending programming indefinitely; our hearts go out to the families affected” while an eerie loop of mournful piano music played.
I remember home shopping network just had a screen that said they suspended programming as they felt going on as usual with infomercials would be wrong.
I flicked over to MTV for a moment, and seem to recall “MTV news” reports updating the situation, but I think they went back to the videos.
You’re kidding… that was the one day they actually played videos?
As I recall, they simulcasted one of the other news channels… most likely their Viacom sibling CBS, as others have mentioned.
Speaking of which, is anyone else tired of the crawls that every “me-too” cable news channel started running that day? I figured they would last a few weeks at most, but it now appears that they’re permanent.
I recall Fox Family for a little while running a Ticker on the bottom of their shows, explainging the events, and perhaps suggesting to change it to an affiliated news network.
TBS and I assume all other Turner Brodcasting Networks ran CNN feeds. I live in Georgia so TBS is a Network (No cable Required) and CNN came though on its channel. As I had no other ‘dedicated’ news feed, I left my tv on TBS/CNN.
Viacom Owns Nick VH1 MTV CMT BET Comedy Central Showtime and a slew of other networks.
I recall that Viacom did accquire CBS, but I am not sure as to this time frame. If this is the case I would assume Viacom would have run the CBS Feed, except on Nick, for obvious reasons. I did not see MTV at all 9-11, but I would think if CBS could have been fed through, it would have been, The event deemed a more sincere front for the delivery of the events.
For at least a week after the tragedy, all they played was videos, interspersed with news updates every once in a while. It’s a shame that it takes a national disaster to actually see some videos on “Music Television.” (Although, I have to admit, and it could just be my imagination, but it seemed like there was an immediate shift in their format at that point; ie, they’ve played more videos since then than before.)
I remember Cartoon Network had canceled Mobile Suit Gundam the very day before. Ironically, the episode had to do with the Zeon attacking a Federation city. They also adjusted some of their schedule to remove the Airplane Hijacking episode of Cowboy Bebop that was supposed to air that day (it was a very small part of the episode, though).
MTV played their selection of “uplifiting, but current” videos for about a week after 9/11. The only one I remember was “Five for Fighting - Superman”, which played at least once every half hour.
I’ve checked my diary, because I recalled writing something about how the cable networks were handling the attacks. I was trapped in Denver – we lived at the end of Manhattan at the time, in an apartment that had a view of the towers, and were trying to fly home the morning of 9/11 when air traffic was halted. We ended up staying in the airport for several hours then finally went and stayed with some business associates of my husband. I was frantic about what was going on and made a record of anything that seemed at all noteworthy, figuring that it would be useful at some point, as a chronicle of my experience.
According to what I wrote at about 2 p.m. (MDT), MTV, VH1 and BET were not airing videos and were instead simulcasting CBS news from New York. I don’t know about CMT because it wasn’t (to my knowledge) on the cable system where I was staying. They stayed with the national CBS feed until the first time (to my knowledge) that CBS broke in order to let local affiliates broadcast an enitre 30 minute local news program, which was, I believe, midday or evening on the 13th. It was at that point that the videos – the most uplifting and happy in the catalog – began.
The news simulcast was supplemented with a screen crawl which indicated that the Viacom networks were broadcasting the CBS news during this time of national tragedy, and that regular programming could be found on Nickelodeon and TV Land. Once videos resumed, there was a periodic screen crawl indicating that the latest news was still available on CBS stations and giving phone numbers for the Red Cross and other agencies.
I watched the towers fall while watching ABC news until my mom came home and changed the channel seeing how i haddent stopped crying since she left for work… i was 19 and i was to leave for navy boot camp 2 weeks later and she didnt want what i was seeing on the news to make me not join but i told her it was now my reason…
Any ways my mom changed the channel but the only thing that was on was the news on every channel but MTV and she made me watch it cause it was music and bob marleys “one love” video was on when she changed it and went back to work… other videos played but about every two or three videos was bob marleys “one love” i watched it all day until my dad got home and MTV also changed to news… my parents live in Sedro - Woolley washington state which is where i lived with them at the time…
This is what i remember from that day and i will never forget it… i now live on long island new york with my husband who works for the department of labor which is not far from the 9/11 memorial or so he says… we are suppose to go to the memorial for the first time (for me anyways) this friday… i will be playing one love on my phone to help me keep calm and hopefully not be lost to my emotions when there…