Reflections on 9/11

Barry Rosenblum, then-GM of Time Warner Cable NYC

CableFAX Daily asked several industry leaders about where they were on Sept 11, 2001. Their answers revealed not just their personal stories, but the stories of the industry. Barry Rosenblum, then-GM of Time Warner Cable NYC and currently SVP of Local News and Programming for TWC, shared his memories from that day. More remembrances in the Sept 9 issue of CableFAX Daily.

"I was in my office when the planes hit and was in a state of disbelief. We had just gotten a contract about a year before to serve the Towers. My first thought was, “Oh my God. We have people in those buildings. We have employees servicing those buildings.” [Employees were all OK] Things were happening very, very quickly. Our dispatch operation was on 23rd St at the time. As thing progressed and the Towers fell, we started getting some reports about being able to locate people. I also oversaw NY1, and we were very concerned about their safety. When the Towers fell, it hit us that because we didn’t pick our signals up from the World Trade Center, we were the only local form of communication that people had in NY. The enormity of what we had to do hit everybody all at once. To some degree, it pushed everything else out of our minds other than making sure we kept the system up and did whatever it took to provide service. We had told most of our employees not to come in on Sept 12, but that day, I’d say 99.5% of people totally disregarded what we said. We wound up wiring police plaza, the police academy, the Armory, where many of the families of people who couldn’t be found were going to search for people and information. To me, the fact the stuff got wired in record time wasn’t the story as much as what people had to do to get it done. We have pictures of amplifiers duct taped to trees and fences; having our employees taking it upon themselves to donate televisions and teddy bears; working with some of the cable channels to help families out. It was just one of those group efforts that you realize this just isn’t cable TV." -Barry Rosenblum     

If you would like to share your own reflections, please email CableFAX Community Editor Kaylee Hultgren at [email protected] or tweet them using #CableFAX.