pretty much every call has been an unintentional meta-parody of "can you hear me now?", "are you there?", "did we lose him", "hello, hello, hello, hello", etc.

it makes for a very annoying show.

the better way to allow for member participation is to plan things in advance, and put some professional production value into it.

otherwise, the 1-3 mins per caller will be 1-3 minutes of dead air.