Anyone ever call a number to get the time?

Where we live it is still operated by AT&T. DH works for them and he always jokes his Grandma is the only one that probably still is keeping that line in usage as they probably think it's a lot of people. That's not his division and I told him to look up who does that area and call them to see exactly how many people use it. But I guess just a machine that goes off their server time so no real loss of money other then the telephone number they own. However, it's not the popcorn number it is something else so that's probably how it slid by AT&T and is still in their system as not mass eliminated when they got rid of it 10+ years ago.

She doesn't pay extra for this number. Back years ago when we'd be charged a few cents for a local call, she'd pay it :)

There's nothing preventing anyone from setting up a phone number to dial in and produce sounds. I remember there used to be people setting up joke versions of time recordings, including one whose schtick was "At the moan, the time will be.....".

The US Naval Observatory still has the time at 202-762-1069 from DC, and 719-567-6742 from Colorado Springs.

https://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/time/telephone-time

However, the person who recorded it for the Bell System was Jane Barbe. She did any number of different recordings that were used by AT&T and its local Bell System subsidiaries. She grew up in Georgia and had a natural southern accent, but she recorded different versions that varied the accent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Barbe


Apparently there were tons of variations that she had recorded. This one says "The time from your telephone company is....":

 
Yes, "back in the day". I didn't even know it was still a thing. We used to call a number to get an instant weather forecast too. I used to love doing that when I was a kid.

And the movie theater line to hear all the listings and times of movies playing if you were going to a movie.
 
And the movie theater line to hear all the listings and times of movies playing if you were going to a movie.

Those were generally done by an employee, and the quality of the recording could be anywhere from really good to some high school kid with a weak voice.

Moviefone was voiced by one of their founders with a great name - Russ Leatherman. He still does Six Second Reviews, but not in his Moviefone voice.
 


Yes, I used to dial POPCORN frequently as a kid when I was bored. Also I was always terrified of talking on the phone (still hate it) so I guess dialing that number and listening to the recording kind of made me feel like I wasn't.
 
I have. 2 seconds ago. Always did when I was a kid. Saw this thread and looked up to see if there was a number. Yup, I had to listen to 2 scripture readings first, then the local small town radio station news DJ told me the date, time, and temperature.

Neat. Surprised there was still a number to call.

OP, have you called the number your grandma is calling? I just heard 2 scripture readings. Could be similar and she calls to hear the scripture. That sounds like something an elder whom may be spiritual would do.
 


Makes me feel old I remember calling the time and temperature line years ago as a kid
 
Yep. We used to call POPCORN to get the time. Haven't done so in years, didn't even know it was still a thing.
 
Where I live it was also the exchange for time and weather.

Are you sure it was 976? I distinctly remember that was for premium phone line service, although each one was specific to a separate area code.
 
Yep. We used to call POPCORN to get the time. Haven't done so in years, didn't even know it was still a thing.

That's the deal. It's not. Most of the local service providers have stopped providing that service. I believe part of it was that they wanted the 767 prefix back to issue for regular phone numbers. What I recall was that any combination of 767-XXXX called for time.
 
A long time ago, probably not after the 50's, 60's for sure the latest. Both time and weather. As well as always talking to the operator to make a call....'number please?' Before rotary dial, and for sure touchtone.
 

If that's the case, it was a pay per call service where the service provider was a private company (never the phone company) providing the service for a per minute fee. I remember 976 numbers. They were all pay for a specific service. The 767-XXXX number I remember was always provided by the local phone company and was considered a "local" call back when I remember there were "zone" charges. Not saying you were wrong, but I'd never heard of time phone numbers being a commercial service.

The article you linked mentions that 976 was for pay per call numbers.

It was but one of hundreds of pay-per-call services, some more wholesome than others, that were yanked on March 24th by Verizon, the city’s ruling phone company. Other casualties included 976-1616 (“At the tone, the time will be two-forty-two and thirty-six seconds”) and numbers that could access fly-by-night stock advice and up-to-the-minute results of marching-band competitions. There was no announcement, no explanation.
 
If that's the case, it was a pay per call service where the service provider was a private company (never the phone company) providing the service for a per minute fee. I remember 976 numbers. They were all pay for a specific service. The 767-XXXX number I remember was always provided by the local phone company and was considered a "local" call back when I remember there were "zone" charges. Not saying you were wrong, but I'd never heard of time phone numbers being a commercial service.

The article you linked mentions that 976 was for pay per call numbers.

It was but one of hundreds of pay-per-call services, some more wholesome than others, that were yanked on March 24th by Verizon, the city’s ruling phone company. Other casualties included 976-1616 (“At the tone, the time will be two-forty-two and thirty-six seconds”) and numbers that could access fly-by-night stock advice and up-to-the-minute results of marching-band competitions. There was no announcement, no explanation.

I never said it was a free call. I was just responding to you questioning me twice, like I had no idea what I was talking about. When I was a little kid it was 936 number when I was in my teens it changed to 976.
 
I never said it was a free call. I was just responding to you questioning me twice, like I had no idea what I was talking about. When I was a little kid it was 936 number when I was in my teens it changed to 976.

Sorry. I was confused because you stated that 976 "was also the exchange for time and weather", which sounded like you were implying that the 976 prefix was solely for time and weather.
 
I've never heard of POP-CORN. Growing up in Louisiana, the time/temp service was always provided by a local bank as a form of advertising. They always had a separate number for it, but it changed from town to town. We called it all the time; particularly after a storm outage, when we wanted to synch our clocks back again.

It makes a fair amount of sense for banks to have done it, seeing how many banks still have time/temp marquees on their buildings. (I still pass two of those on my daily commute.)

PS: Out of curiosity, I decided to see if my city still had a time/temp line, and it does. Just called it to verify. (These days it is sponsored by a law firm.) I also found this 4 yr old newspaper article about how the number of calls to it was declining: http://newwentzvillian.blogspot.com/2014/07/i-phones-are-killing-st-louis-time-and.html
 
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I looked into it, and there are number of different phone numbers that still provide the time. A few of them took up the 767 prefix that was used before. One is 415-767-2676 (POP-CORN) which I tried calling. It was odd. It started off with a brief message to wait, an ad for Life Alert, and then the local time and temperature without a beep. It then automatically disconnected. It wasn't anything where the called could adjust a clock.
 
I've never heard of POP-CORN. Growing up in Louisiana, the time/temp service was always provided by a local bank as a form of advertising. They always had a separate number for it, but it changed from town to town. We called it all the time; particularly after a storm outage, when we wanted to synch our clocks back again.

It makes a fair amount of sense for banks to have done it, seeing how many banks still have time/temp marquees on their buildings. (I still pass two of those on my daily commute.)

Some might still be active. The list I see here shows a bunch that were previously provided by banks, but then taken over by another operator once the banks discontinued them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_clock#Active

I'd hate to have a phone number that was recycled from a defunct phone time service. I'm having enough problems as it is with my cell phone number off by one from a business phone number. Ironically enough, I've been a customer of that business. I even saw an online directory that had my phone number incorrectly listed for this business.
 

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