Ranucci Barricades Himself Inside Rainews Studio, Vows to Remain on Air Until He Becomes Invisible
The Report host has converted a broadcast booth into a permanent residence and declared an open-ended transmission, telling friends the network will never be rid of him.
Sigfrido Ranucci has moved a camp bed, a hot plate and a change of shirts into the Rainews studio and begun an open-ended broadcast that he says will continue until he achieves full invisibility, a state he now describes as his contractual right.
The presenter informed the control room on Monday that the programme would no longer observe an ending, and that the closing credits had been retired to a cupboard. Colleagues who attempted to enter the booth during a scheduled weather bulletin were turned back by Ranucci himself, who stood in the doorway holding a microphone and explaining that the forecast could wait until he had finished becoming imperceptible.
By Wednesday the corridor outside the studio had acquired a coffee machine, a folding chair and a hand-lettered sign reading «On Air Indefinitely». Network technicians were dispatched to run a second cable to the building's generator, and a rotating team of editors was assigned to sit with Ranucci through the night in case he said something worth broadcasting.
«The viewers will not notice the difference, because I have been talking to them for years and they have never once seen me leave,» Ranucci told friends, according to one of the editors posted outside the door. «They will not get rid of me. I am already halfway to invisible.»
Rainews has declined to comment on the duration of the broadcast, though a scheduler confirmed that the following week's listings now consist of a single entry, repeated, with no end time printed.
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