Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) set a record on Tuesday as he spoke on the Senate floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes as he protested against the agenda set forth by President Donald Trump. News/Talk Radio hosts were impressed by the stamina.
Sometimes, things happen at radio stations or studios that require being on the air for long periods of time. Whether that be equipment failures, breaking news stories, or natural disasters that require round-the-clock coverage, nearly every radio host — regardless of format — has a story of their marathon time on the air.
We reached out to several news/talk radio hosts to ask about their stories and how long they think they could stay on the air, similar to what Cory Booker did earlier this week.
“I’ve done five-hour shows pretty routinely when I was first starting out,” said Dan O’Donnell, afternoon host of 1130 WISN in Milwaukee. “I co-hosted a weekend sports talk show and we would just go on right after the paid advertising shows in the morning until whenever the Milwaukee Brewers game started that afternoon or evening.
“The longest I ever had to just talk with no commercials or phones or sound bites was probably about two hours. We had a catastrophic system failure while I was hosting a show and the only thing that worked were the microphones,” O’Donnell continued. “I’ll never forget my boss asking me ‘So how long do you think you could just, you know, talk?'”
“My longest two days sadly involve tragedy,” said current SuperTalk 99.7 WTN afternoon host Matt Murphy. “On 9/11, I was working in Montgomery at WACV as morning news anchor and afternoon talk host. After the first plane struck, I ended up on air until about 7 PM that night for obvious reasons.
“On April 27th, 2011, I was morning host of WAPI in Birmingham when a disastrous outbreak of tornados swept through the southeast, killing 250 people in Alabama alone. I ended up on air overnight and into the next day for roughly 18 hours. It was a whirlwind of news reports and assisting listeners on the ground in real-time connect with first responders for help. The station was wall-to-wall coverage for the next 2 weeks.”
“I’ve had several breaking news stories, city-wide events, and parades where I have been in the air either anchoring or hosting for over 10 hours,” said 710 WOR morning host Larry Mendte. “But the longest was 18 1/2 hours. It was for a blizzard in Philadelphia. The station booked a hotel around the corner and I was in the next morning after four hours sleep for another 13 1/2 straight.”
Mendte added that he once had to stay awake for 30 hours straight while working on a story about the dangers of driving on limited or no sleep. He said his producer had the tougher job, spending 30 hours making sure Mendte didn’t dose off.
Cory Booker shared after his marathon speech that he purposely did not eat or drink anything for several days so he would not need to use the restroom as he spoke for more than one full day. We asked the news/talk radio hosts if they had the same notice to prepare for a long time on the air, just how long did they think they could last.
“I’ve never really thought much about how long I could go without any breaks whatsoever now but if you gave me a few days (and plenty of coffee) I bet it would be quite a while,” said O’Donnell. “Definitely not 24 hours, though!”
“With proper preparation and the right setup (port-a-potty), I think I could survive on air until I just got too sleepy to go on,” said Murphy. “I’ve been blessed with a throat that never sores, so I think my only barrier would be exhaustion. I think I could do 48 hours.”
“I think I could beat Cory Booker, but if I had a comfy chair, a co-anchor, a weather team, and reporters to throw to,” said Mendte. “Plus if I had something to describe, which is vitally important.”
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