Milwaukee journalists reflect on covering 9/11 attacks 25 years later

MILWAUKEE - The nation will pause Friday to remember the tragedy of the Sept. 11 attacks as it does that day every year.

Twenty-five years ago, the attacks brought our nation to a standstill – grounding flights, closing businesses and schools.

Journalists reflect on covering 9/11

What they're saying:

In newsrooms across the country, journalists found a way to inform the public, and now, those who told us the story of that day and all that followed are sharing theirs.

It started out as a sunny, September day in Milwaukee.

"Beautiful! I vividly remember blue skies. It was Tuesday. Katrina and I were anchoring, which was rare, and whenever we got together, it was giggle fest," Kim Murphy said.

Murphy and Katrina Cravy co-anchored FOX6 WakeUp, produced by Kelly Stoop that morning.

As they went to close the 7 a.m. show, the news had just broke.

"I remember sitting there at the desk and seeing a little bit of wire copy pop up on the computer that said a biplane went into the World Trade Center," Cravy said.

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"And at the meteorologist at the time got in my ear, and was like, 'Kelly, look at the networks. They're showing New York, and there's some sort of smoke. What's going on?'" Stoop said.

On the air, Murphy announced, "We have breaking news this morning out of New York."

"What you're looking at right now is a live picture of the World Trade Center. According to witnesses, a twin-engine plane has just literally flown right into the top of the World Trade Center. You can see from this live picture that smoke is just pouring out of it right now. We have no word on injuries. This just recently happened. We will bring you the most updated information just as soon as we get it, but juding by these pictures here, you can see it looks like a disastrous accident. We don't know how the people are inside, but we will let you know. And stay tuned to the FOX6 Wakeup News. Milwaukee's only local news from 5:30-9 continues at 8," Cravy told viewers.

"And I do remember – I think all of us are processing it at the same time, because we see the smoke, but at the same time, we see this jet liner, so it couldn't have been a replay," Murphy said. "But at the time, that just didn't make sense. And then we realize it was the second plane, that another plane had gone in."

"We all knew that this was not something we were gonna pull away from," Stoop said. "You were just sort of jaw-dropped watching going, what is this?'"

"And 9 o'clock is when the newsroom starts for the day, and so, everyone was coming into work as this was happening," Murphy said.

Ted Perry was one of the dozens of employees who quickly showed up to the newsroom.

"I was up early, because I had to do the radio. Sometimes, I filled in on Bob & Brian on what was then Laser 103, now the Hog..." Perry said.

Cary Docter was also home when the news broke.

"We had Sesame street on and you know. I got a call from my wife, and she said, 'Hey, are you seeing what's going on?' And I said, 'What are you talking about?' And she said, 'Turn on the TV.' When I turned on the TV, that's when I saw the second plane hit the second tower," Docter said.

"And I'm describing to people on the radio what I'm seeing. And saying, 'Alright, for those of you who are driving, let me just picture. What we're seeing now is this, this and this.' And as we're doing this, a lightbulb went off and I said, 'I gotta get to my day job,'" Perry said.

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"It was drop my daughter off at school, take my son to daycare and was get into the building as quickly as I could," Docter said.

On the way in, Perry still remembers what he saw in a nearby park.

"And what I remember is that there were moms playing with their kids at this little park. And this was pre-cell phone, and I remember thinking, 'Oh my god. They don't know. They don't know about this yet. I'm willing to bet that this...' and it was almost like you could feel the innocence being zapped out of that little park," Perry said.

Recordings found of our newscasts that day include audio from the control room.

"What do you want to do with tapes? Do you know yet?" a staff member asked.

"Looks like – I can't imagine us doing anything from here on out," a director replied.

Soon, local updates came every hour as safety concerns rippled across the country. 10 p.m. producer Cary Docter and so many others came in to help.

"I think I spent all morning and all early afternoon back in our technical operations room. Just monitoring feeds and logging and marking tapes and stuff like that so that we would know what was where," Docter said.

Perry joined Cravy on the desk.

"Good morning everyone. Ted Perry along with Katrina Cravy in the FOX6 studios. To say the least, this has been an awful morning in America. We are cutting into FOX coverage now to let you know how Milwaukee is reacting to the terrorist attacks both in New York City and in Washington D.C. and possibly Pennsylvania," Perry said.

"I think that was the biggest fear that everybody had in the newsroom and throughout the Milwaukee market was just, you know, what's gonna happen next," Docter said.

"I believe they sent Kim out to the airport, and they left me, the substitute anchor, on the desk. And we had a landline underneath the desk, just like a real landline phone. And I remember calling my mother, when the national news took it for a little bit. And my mom's in California, and she said, 'Where are you and are you ok?' And I said, 'I'm in Milwaukee. I'm on the news desk. And I am not ok.' Right? Cause I was like ok, now it became real. And we saw that video of people jumping out of the buildings. And I wasn't on yet, but I knew that they were gonna cut back to us, and I needed to be ready and to be more professional," Cravy said.

"I remember trying to be calm – I had been on the anchor desk for a few years, literally like two years. But at one point, and it still gets me when I talk about this, ... at one point, the death toll was estimated to be as high as 8,000. And I remember saying, on the air, my voice is cracking just like I'm almost reliving it again, I said on the air to Joyce (Garbaciak), 'That's the population of my hometown of Baraboo.' And I thought, it can't be that bad. And they later... God, it's funny. I hadn't thought about that in a long time," Perry said.

"You turned on the radio, there was no music. Yeah. Because every single station, they were talking about this. It just everything. So, I mean, for that entire week, there were no commercials. There was no television. It was just wall to wall coverage. I mean now we have the pandemic to kind of, but it was even that amplified," Murphy said.

Eventually, shifts returned to normal, and employees headed home almost to face reality off the air.

"I do remember trying to go out to the lake and try to relax about... and hearing the birds, and I was thinking, 'They don't know what just happened, right? Like, the wildlife here in Milwaukee...' I know that sounds kind of weird, but I was just like, our whole world changed. And yet, when you're out at the lakefront late in the evening, it didn't happen here but it happened to all of us," Cravy said.

"I just couldn't wait to get home. But I knew also that we had a job to do here and we [family] would see each other and that time will come," Docter said.

A lot of the stories that followed that night and the days, weeks and months ahead focused on hope and community.

But that day, a focus on fast-changing facts and people helped define what this station is still focused on.

"I was just really proud of the people here that day. I was proud of the industry that day. I was proud of our colleagues at the other stations. I know everybody was doing the best they could," Perry said.

Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Sam Kraemer and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.

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