Just listening to him tell his story, your heart goes out to Earle Robinson.

"When I wake (hiccup) up in the morning (hiccup) they're okay, they're gone (hiccup)," he says. "But (hiccup) then they come back a couple hours later (hiccup) and it's been that way (hiccup) every (hiccup)... everyday."

The medical explanation is his diaphragm's contracting every few seconds or so--a case of hiccups so persistent it's tough to get a sentence out. It's been that way since Wednesday.

His co-workers are baffled, and he says his doctors are stumped, and there are few jobs worse to have if you have hiccups than Earle's.

He does an hour-long radio show called "Sportstalk 870" on WKAR from 2-3 p.m. weekdays and an hour with Tim Staudt on Staudt on Sports Sundays on WILX.

Staudt explained it to viewers Sunday, and Robinson suffered through the broadcast but his radio chairs been empty for a week.

"I'm starting to feel bad," producer Rob Bennett says, admitting they'd given him some grief. "I just want him to get back."

Oddly enough, Robinson had persistent hiccups once last year too for about a week, or a week and a half. He says they just faded away.

Both times, you name it, he's tried it as a cure.

"I've tried eating a spoonful of mustard," he says. He also tried eating a spoonful of peanut butter, drinking water really fast, and drinking water upside down. All failed. Holding his breathe also failed. Valium is helping him sleep and, for now, he's just praying those hiccups fade away--soon.