November 05, 2008 |
I love elections the way sports fans love major finals. To prepare for my up-coming job, hosting a daily talk show on i105-107, I presented a US election special on their sister station, i102-104. 'Out for the Count with Abie Philbin Bowman' took it's title from an Irish election special which my late brother Jonathan hosted on a Dublin radio show back in 1997.
It was an honour and a joy to cover this historic election on air. It was also impossible to compete with the huge budgets, graphics and correspondents of the World's biggest media organisations - CNN, ABC, BBC, Sky etc. We actually had CNN on screen outside the studio. Since the fiasco of Gore/Bush in 2000, US networks are wary of calling the election too early, so we actually called it for Obama - based on their figures - long before they did (c. 2.45 am Irish time).
We did manage one scoop over the big boys, by interviewing the National Membership Director of an organisation which has fought this day for over 100 years - the Ku Klux Klan.
