Screening and Editing
Calls typically come into the studio on a multi-line telephone, which is equipped to connect callers to the audio console and onto the air via a telephone hybrid. However, in modern broadcasting, this is not always the case.
Call screeners may take the calls initially in an adjacent room (or simply away from the microphone), in order to determine which ones would get onto the air, particularly in the case of a talk show. Most call-in shows have special software which the screener types the caller's information into, which in turn appears on the computer in front of the host. This is how he or she knows how to introduce the caller by name and often by location. This in turn alerts the caller, who has often been on hold for several minutes and may be listening to the radio or TV instead of the line, that he or she is now on the air. Such a notification is often also a part of broadcast law if the caller may not have called with the expectation of being on the air.
A brief broadcast delay may be used to allow profanity or other inappropriate content (and possibly the caller) to be dropped, or voice tracking may be used to record calls to a computer, where the call can be digitally edited for time and content. This method is most common with contest winners or callers to "all-request" shows like Delilah, and is done quickly for airplay just a few minutes later. Delilah actually does her show from a home studio, with the call screeners presumably at the studios of KRWM FM in Seattle.
Read more about this topic: Request Line
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