That was an Edison phonograph record. The earlier ones were tubular, later on the disk format became popular as you could record on both sides of it.
Part of me had a good laugh, the other part wonders whether whatever was recorded on that was lost forever when it broke. 
For example, jump forwards fifty years, and replace that recording with the last surviving archive of classic arcade roms.
I wondered that myself, actually. The guy had a perspective on the value of the object, and he lost it due to his own fumbling. If we had the chance to ask him, I'd bet he'd say that the event happened in slow motion as he watched history crumble before his eyes.
If it was a nineteenth century recording, it is irreplacable.
I would have backhanded the interviewer for good measure. Smart alec.