Chapter 5 pages 82-83

The delays by Infinity Broadcasting and Susquehanna were met and aided by September 11 events where the Twin Towers came tumbling down in NY City. This was a brief period in time where gamblers needed a week to reflect and the NFL, most of College Football and sports for that matter shut down for about a week. The gamblers would be back in full force though and we were ready for them.

As for the events, I remember waking up in the morning and heading off to the gym at 6 am central time. By the time I came back to my condo I was ready to see the sports updates on CNN headline news which was one of the few English speaking channels that I could count on for home country news. There it was the very gigantic towers that I had stood outside of just a few years earlier were tumbling down. It just didn’t seem right and I certainly didn’t want to make any personal judgments right away but a few things I did know; gamblers would not be signing up for a short while, air travel was going to be more complicated, and going back home permanently in a week was not going to happen. I was really missing Sparky right now and I ended up spending more time with George’s dog Jake taking him for an occasional walk hoping Sparky knew I had not abandoned her. I would even call Odinga to see if she could visit Sparky after all this was her dog and I got her in a heavy buyout which never has bothered me despite paying about a hundred times more than what anyone would pay for a dog that was destined for the pound.

That week was used to re-group and relax. The first couple of days I was constantly on the phones speaking with the utmost courtesy to all the media as I didn’t want to offend anyone with talk about the business of gambling coming back on the air when so many people had just been brutally murdered in a fiery death by some sick individuals but we must live on and I had a job to do. I was amazed at the courtesy of the media. They worked with us by taking spots off the air although there were some stations that couldn’t do it but just about all of them ended up complimenting us spots once we resumed advertising just over a week later in September heading into a weekend of football.

And the gamblers came back in full force as if nothing happened.