<P> Donahue began his career in 1957 as a production assistant at KYW radio and television when that station was in Cleveland . He got a chance to become an announcer one day when the regular announcer failed to show up . After a brief stint as a bank check sorter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he became program director for WABJ radio in Adrian, Michigan, soon after graduating . He moved on to become a stringer for the CBS Evening News and later, an anchor of the morning newscast at WHIO - TV in Dayton, Ohio, where his interviews with Jimmy Hoffa and Billie Sol Estes were picked up nationally . While in Dayton, Donahue also hosted Conversation Piece, a phone - in afternoon talk show from 1963 to 1967 on WHIO radio . In Dayton, Donahue interviewed presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, late night talk show host Johnny Carson, human rights activist Malcolm X and Vietnam war opponents including Jerry Rubin . In Chicago and New York City, Donahue interviewed Elton John, heavyweight boxing champions Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and author and political activist Noam Chomsky . </P> <P> On November 6, 1967, Donahue left WHIO, moving his talk program to television with The Phil Donahue Show on WLW - D (indicating the Dayton branch of Cincinnati's WLWT now known as WDTN), also in Dayton . Initially, the program was shown only on other stations owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation (which would later take the name of its parent Avco Company), which also owned WLWD . But, in January 1970, The Phil Donahue Show entered nationwide syndication . Donahue's syndicated show moved from Dayton, Ohio, to Chicago in 1974; then in 1984, he moved the show to New York City, where the show was shot at a studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, to be near his wife Marlo Thomas . </P> <P> In 1988, from the Rainbow Room, he presented a special honoring Mary Martin, with Steve Leeds and the Rainbow Room Orchestra, with guest vocalists Michael Feinstein, and Nancy Wilson . Bandleader Leeds sang the final number "Isn't it Romantic". </P> <P> After a 29 - year run--26 years in syndication--and nearly 7,000 one - hour daily shows, the final original episode of Donahue aired on September 13, 1996, culminating what as of 2015 remains the longest continuous run of any syndicated talk show in U.S. television history . </P>

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