BlogTalkRadio is a podcasting service, like PodoMatic and GCast, but with a difference: it lets you stream your podcast in real time and lets you take telephone callers to your show and put them on the air with you.

It’s a just the thing for podcasters who want to add interactivity to their work. And BlogTalkRadio is clever in its implementation: all audio input is via the telephone. Podcasters get a private dial-in number to the BlogTalkRadio service, from where they are streamed out to the Net (and also archived for later replay). Callers get their own number, too, and BlogTalkRadio provides a Web-based console that the podcaster uses to control the show.

Like standard broadcast radio, BlogTalkRadio podcasts can be supported by advertising. Audio advertisements are inserted, live, in the audio stream; the host gets a warning on his or her console before the ads play, so he or she is able to gracefully cut to the commercial. BlogTalkRadio will split ad revenues 50/50 with the podcast hosts.

Anything that makes podcasts interactive is a great idea, and other tools out there do this too; see RadioHandi, Skype’s Skypecast feature, and Waxxi.

BlogTalkRadio does not allow hosts to broadcast from a computer.

BlogTalkRadio allows you to create an interactive live podcast that can be broadcast from any location where you can get a cellular signal. That’s a pretty cool thing.

Cnet.com