Per his oral history, he actually heard about it from his then-girlfriend...
I was at home, because I had a shift and I was going to do descent. I was lying on the couch, and my wife, who wasn’t my wife, she called and she said, “You see what happened?” And I hadn’t. So I drove onsite. We all sort of responded to what we heard on the radio and drove onsite. It was pretty grim. I don’t think there was anybody who expected that crew to live. A lot of them, in retrospect, will tell you how macho and cool, but it was pretty grim.
Obviously everyone was stressed and worried but I do think he sounds shaken. He took a much more pessimistic view of the situation than many/most of his colleagues – a couple of whom, Sy Liebergot and Chuck Deiterich, have since indignantly refuted his claim that no one expected the crew to live – so maybe it stands to reason that it would be audible in his voice.
And of course he, like everyone else, went to the MOCR even though he was told he wasn't needed immediately!