Live Radio

When people call in to radio stations, are the calls broadcast live?

It seems the DJs or whatever are having perfectly normal conversations with the people who call in. I've never called in myself, so I couldn't tell whether I was hearing what those people were saying at the exact same time they were speaking. But if it's live, couldn't it potentially cause problems? Since the people calling in could easily use profanity at the DJ and say a lot of mean things.

Public Comments

1. 7 second delay. ive been kicked off and banned from a few radio stations.
2. there are certain situations when yes they are broadcast live. but however there is a "lag" of about 6 seconds so if your on you will hear an echo over your stereo. most times no but if your a winner or telling a story some stations will put you on live. when i was younger they had a thing with people with there worst ideas and i called in and was put on live.
3. There's usually a delay between what's actually said and when the listener hears it on the radio. Sometimes up to 30 seconds, for the reasons you mentioned.