We did a two-hour live show when I was at WHCU/Ithaca, NY for the 2008 election. At the time, we had our APD/Morning Show host, PD/News Director, and two full-time news reporters (including myself). We also got some staff from sister stations and office staff to help with researching on websites and producing. The election that year included the President, two area House seats, three area state senate races, one state assembly race, and a handful of local races.
Before election night, we tried to pick what we thought would be the two closest local races. I covered the 51st State Senate race, and my peer covered a tight race in nearby Cortland (IIRC, it was a county legislature chair). We each went to the respective campaign headquarters for the nominees. We would phone in once every half hour to give atmosphere reports ("lots of energy and excitement at the Seward campaign headquarters in downtown Oneonta tonight...") and vote counts. Right there, we had roughly 6-12 minutes of phone interview coverage every half hour.
Meanwhile, in studio, we had visits from county party committee chairs and political commentators. The rest of the races we covered via Board of Election websites, and the hosts would run down the tallies periodically as they came in. We also used CBS News election coverage feeds (I believe Dan Raviv was anchoring) to stay on top of national races, and the main host would cut in and out of that feed as necessary/appropriate.
As for how all the puzzle pieces fit together, I can't comment first hand, as I was out of listening range and busy gathering interviews and sound bytes for the next morning newscasts. But, I think if you have a good mix of on-scene reporting, studio reports on vote counts, political guests/analysts, etc. you can piece together a good show. We received a whirlwind of compliments on our efforts (granted it made for a long day, but it was fun).
Hope that helps.
