They are wearing rubber gloves which helps but it's not enough to prevent RF burns. This is obviously an AM station. The electric arc between the radio tower and the hand-held weed is modulated with the radio signal. That electrical arc heats the air around it and the expanding air moves more air— a sound wave. Were that experiment carried out inside a vacuum, the arc would continue, but the sound would not.
Please do not do this at home.
LOL! When I was taking broadcasting courses in college, my class took a field trip to the KNSE (now KSPA) transmitter site in Ontario, California. The engineer showed us the same trick but he used a pencil.
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