Now co-host of “Cubby and Christine Mornings” on 106.7 Lite FM in New York City, Cubby Bryant was the music director of Z100 New York in September, 2001, and was on the air in the afternoons, so he didn’t watch TV in the morning.
Instead, he’d tune it to “Elvis Duran And The Morning Zoo,” for entertainment and the songs he had programmed for the show. Cubby was listening in the shower when Elvis suddenly faded out the #1 song of the day —Jennifer Lopez’s “I’m Real” — to relay that there was smoke coming out of The World Trade Center, and they didn’t know what was happening.
Z100 was then located in Jersey City on the 35th floor of Jersey City’s tallest office building. As Cubby put it, it was like being on the 50-yard line, with a clear view of The World Trade Center, across the Hudson River. Living 10 minutes away in Hoboken, Bryant knew he had to get to work; whatever was happening, he’d be needed and that it was going to be a long day.
He never made it. The security guard at the parking garage told him the building was being evacuated, as there were fears it, too, could be a target. His work began September 12th, with the decision to play no music, and instead become a life line for those missing loved ones, those who couldn’t get home, and those who just needed to talk.