On Nov. 3, 2020, Brad Haworth got a phone call that would be life changing.
Test results confirmed Haworth, a 30-plus year employee at KTLO, Classic Hits & The Boot, had developed the COVID-19 illness after exposure to the coronavirus. What would follow was a battle for his life, followed by fight to regain his career as an on-air host and “Voice of the Bombers” as a sportscaster.
Feeling sick on a Monday evening and testing positive that Tuesday morning, Haworth would be put on oxygen by Friday and hospitalized the following week. Haworth describes the onset of his illness.
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Haworth would end up hospitalized due to COVID, where he received Remdesivir, a drug which was given emergency use authorization by the Food & Drug Administration. Treatment with convalescent plasma followed and his fever finally broke, allowing Haworth to return home.
Though he was home, COVID continued to ravage Haworth with additional symptoms. He would be classified as a long-haul COVID sufferer and says some of the worst effects of the illness were yet to come.
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After coping with the life-threatening aspects of COVID, Haworth says his livelihood was endangered when he lost his voice.
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At one point, Haworth says he didn’t know if things would ever return to normal.
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The nightmare that began in November finally ended when Haworth returned to the airwaves on Wednesday, 196 days after his diagnosis. Even though he is in his third decade of broadcasting, Haworth says his return to the air was not without some trepidation.
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Through it all, it was the support he received from his wife MaryJo, family, friends, and listeners that kept him going through that time – which included being separated from his children for an extended period of time at the holidays.
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Brad Haworth is on air weekday mornings from 6 to 9 on 99.7 The Boot.
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