How long would you stay tuned to a radio station playing nothing but commercials? How about nearly 15 minutes of spots? 

That's what happened on New Year's Day on AM640, after their automated system seemed to go haywire. They were airing a reroll of Ben Mulroney's show, which for some reason ended at 8:40AM. Listeners then heard what should have been the top of the hour Canadian Press News.

When that inevitably ended, we got one more reroll interview, which ended at around ten minutes to nine. While I normally tune out a station as soon as they go to a spot break, something told me to stay tuned. And I couldn't believe what I heard. One commercial after another after another after another after ... well, you get the idea. 

They wound up filling the usually precious airtime with nearly 10 full minutes of back-to-back-to-back spots. It became something of a challenge to stay tuned but by then I was totally invested. Just how long could this possibly go on? Turns out at least nine minutes or so by my count, although I didn't note the time when it started. But it was endless. 

And what followed this endless cluster of shilling? Why the Canadian Press top of the hour news, even though we'd just heard it less than 20 minutes ago. And worse, it didn't end there. What happened next was even worse.

To add insult to injury, out of that short newscast they aired 21 more spots - yes 21! -  five promos and 2 PSAs! And yes, I counted. The break that started at 9:04 AM went on until 9:18, a total of 14 minutes of interrupted commercials. It was incredible. 

What a horrible thing to do to listeners, although I doubt there were many left by then. Only a radio geek like me would have stayed tuned just to see how long it could possibly go on. And go on, it did! 

My question - how could this happen? A glitch in the automation system? Something wrong with the replayed show that was supposed to follow? Whatever it was, it almost certainly set the record for the two longest spot breaks in radio history.

And one more thing - when regular reroll programming resumed at 9:18 AM, they ran the exact same Mulroney segment that was on before the marathon spot festival began. Not a great beginning to the New Year for the guys and gals at Corus Quay.

The only upside? Not one of those endless 30 secs. spots was for Spence Diamonds! Thank God for small mercies.