I do miss Art Bell. I got a chance to speak on the phone with him at the end of a show in 2008. He appreciated that I had been listening since the mid-90s on AM.
He was one of the best interviewers ever.
I have an uncle who called in Ghost to Ghost in 98 or 99. He was on hold for 3 hours lol. The way it worked was if you didn’t get on the line, your phone would just go dead. If your call got on the “list line”, you would just hear “due to the many calls, your call will be put in first sequence.” or something similar.