Chávez Launches 4-Day TV Talkathon

"There's no program like this one," Chávez boasted as he launched the program while standing outdoors at an electrical plant in western Venezuela. Chávez said the show would run through Sunday, with some breaks of unspecified duration.

That could threaten what Chávez says is his own personal record of taking for more than eight hours straight one Sunday in 2007.

"Hello President" was first broadcast on radio on May 23, 1999, a month after Chávez took office. State television began airing the show the following year, and it has become a pillar of efforts to counter what the president calls one-sided reporting by private media.

Other Latin American leaders — from Mexico's Vicente Fox to Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — have since launched their own weekly broadcasts, but none has managed to duplicate the unpredictable Chávez's ability to pull an audience.

Chávez has often burst into song, hugged visiting Hollywood celebrities and scolded careless camera operators while preaching his own brand of socialism. (Read "Why Obama Should Talk to Chávez")

Watchers are likely to see Chávez chat by phone with Fidel Castro, invent colorful epithets for George W. Bush and unexpectedly announce the seizure of major industries before veering off into a lengthy ramble about steel output. He spoke for about 30 minutes on Thursday about the production of sardines in eastern Venezuela. Shows typically last four to six hours each Sunday.

One show opened onboard a military helicopter in flight, recalled Andres Izarra, a former information minister who ran the program for two years. "Every 'Hello President' is an adventure," Izarra said.

His close friend and mentor Fidel Castro — himself a master of marathon speechmaking — congratulated the Venezuelan president Thursday: "Never has a revolutionary idea made use of a medium of communication with such efficiency," the 82-year-old Cuban leader wrote in his country's official newspapers.