WBAB morning team marks 20th anniversary of 9/11 with special shows – Newsday
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, after the shock had worn off and the horror had set in, WBAB morning hosts Roger Luce and John “JP” Parise got a call from their general manager who told them to “go local now.” What this would come to mean in the days to follow was extraordinary: Listeners by the thousands turned up at the station’s West Babylon studios with shovels, knee pads, masks, water, and anything else Luce and Parise told them was needed by rescue workers at Ground Zero.
The supplies were loaded into tractor trailers and SUVs. For seven days, the BAB caravan made its way back and forth from the studio to the smoking devastation.
Luce and Parise, who had been co-hosts at WBAB/102.3 FM for just a little over a year at the time, had help: Retired NYPD detective Steven Damiani. A Massapequa native who now lives in West Islip, Damiani relayed the worker requests directly from Ground Zero, and later accompanied some of those trailers into the city himself. His badge got them through the various Manhattan checkpoints.
On Friday and Saturday, Luce and Parise will commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with a pair of special editions — and special guests, including the former general manager Kim Guthrie, Damiani, as well as veteran (and legendary] BAB hosts like Donna Donna. Newsday spoke with Luce, Parise and Damiani about that long-ago expression of grief and solidarity.
Tell me about these next couple of days.
LUCE: On Saturday, we’ll be on from 8:46 and go through 11 [a.m.] and mark the timeline as we go, and play songs that were appropriate at the time — ‘New York State of Mind,’ or ‘Show me the Way’ from Styx, [and] Ray Charles’ ‘America the Beautiful,’ which we’ve played every year since at 8:48 a.m. [on Sept. 11]. Friday and Saturday is about talking to the listeners [and] how Long Island came together after Sept. 11. [The call-in number is 631-955-9222, or 631-955-WBAB.]
Walk me through the creation of the BAB caravan.
PARISE: Our GM [Guthrie] was at a diner and came right into the studio and said ‘we gotta get local and get local now’ [and] we opened up the phone lines. There is a friend of mine, Steve Damiani, who drove to Ground Zero and called up and said, ‘They need this, this and this. But first, knee pads,’ and before we knew it Sports Authority showed up with a truckload, and also with heavy gloves. Then listeners came. The line of cars went from the parking lot [at 555 Sunrise Hwy.] all the way down past [State Route] 231 and up Little East Neck Road. It became a system: He’d call and tell us, then escort the next truck to the pile.
Why was it so important to listeners?
PARISE: They needed to do something — didn’t know how to grieve yet or what they needed to do but they needed to do something and they were listening to us. You could see them in the parking lot with a thousand-foot stare, but it gave them a purpose.
Tell me how you worked into this?
DAMIANI: There was no organization down there at all, and I called J.P., and said, listen, we need stuff [and] five hours later, the whole [parking lot] of BAB was filled with everything. I probably did about 15 trips in my own [truck] and remember stopping at a Home Depot in Bay Shore, and they said fill up your truck with whatever you need … It was crazy but amazing how I saw people come together. It was also a horrible time and I don’t like to talk about it to nobody, but I’ll be there [on the air] Saturday.