Overview
- Guinness World Records has certified Joseph McGrail-Bateup’s 122.4-decibel shout as the loudest shout by an individual male, surpassing the 121.7 dB mark set in 1994.
- The winning shout of the word “now” was recorded in a Canberra radio studio by a professional acoustic engineer with witnesses present on May 2, and the audio files were submitted to Guinness for verification.
- McGrail-Bateup, a 58-year-old air-conditioner cleaner who serves as Canberra’s honorary town crier, said it took seven attempts to produce the record and left his voice strained for days.
- The 122.4 dB measurement is comparable to a chainsaw, a jet taking off, or a close ambulance siren and is close to sound levels associated with pain, underscoring physical limits and health risks of extreme vocal projection.
- McGrail-Bateup asked that his title be recorded as the loudest male shout so Annalisa Flanagan keeps the female record, and he said he welcomes challengers while noting the role of town-crier competitions in developing projection skills.