How do you manage phone calls during your show?

I am looking to take phone calls this year on my live show but was wondering how you guys manage it?

Is there anything I can do to make sure I receive decent phone calls / engaging phone calls?

How can I encourage more callers?

We use the BlogtalkRadio phone bridge part of the time, Skype Premium other times.
If you find out how to get "decent phone calls / engaging phone calls" let us know :-))))))

Managing the calls can be tricky. If you are using a service like Blog Talk Radio it make sit much easier to see who is calling and where they are calling from. you also have the ability to set up a call screener.

Most people are using services like Skype to accept phone calls during their live broadcast and well... It can be a pain in the butt. you really have no way to screening the callers

I use BTR and have a call screener and minus a few hiccups it works well.

I don't take calls every show but when I do I bring them in through my mixer (connected to my cell phone). It sounds like a cell phone call, but other than that the quality is acceptable. It's set up with a mix-minus like you would with Skype audio. Callers have been well behaved and had good questions and comments.

I'll post the number on the chat and invite folks to call in. Very spur of the moment. And practically free!

Hat tip to Joe de Max for the cell phone-to-mixer trick.

Tom I am considering the cell phone route as an option by maybe leveraging one of these two devices.

http://www.jkaudio.com/bluedriver.htm
http://www.jkaudio.com/bluekeeper.htm

How are you connecting your cell phone...is it a straight 3.5mm jack out to your mixer.

Also I am getting ready to pull the trigger on a Digital Hybrid device if I can get it cheap :) E.G. Used...

http://www.jkaudio.com/broadcast-host.htm

I don't expect I will be taking calls anytime soon but when I do I will be glad to have some options.