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What's the Time and Temperature Phone Number in your Area ?

Started by bingster, July 16, 2009, 04:44:57 PM

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bingster

Jsowers mentioned time and weather in another post, along with a number for local weather, and that got me wondering... What are YOUR local numbers for time and weather?

Here around DC, the number for time is 202 TIme 4-1212, and the number for weather is 202 WEather 6-1212.
= DARRIN =



Phonesrfun

It's 2:09 and 98 degrees in Walla Walla, WA. 

We don't have a time and temp phone number so we have to do it the old fashioned way and go outside. 

Either that or I use my RF remote thermometer.  And if that's not enough I work for a bank that has a time and temp sign on the corner of the building that always reads too hot in the summer.

About a year ago, ne of the switcher-guys on C-net had set up an 800 number that you could call into that would use the caller ID of your area code and prefix and then go out to the national weather service and give you your local time and temp.  It worked pretty well, for the most part. 

-Bill
-Bill G

Phonesrfun

PS:  Years ago when I grew up in Portland, OR, time was 229-1212 (oficially), but you could dial 229 and any 4 numbers.   No weather number,  we had to go outside to see the weather.

I am now coming to the understanding of how they used digit absorbing step switches to do the any four number routine.

-Bill
-Bill G

bingster

Quote from: Phonesrfun on July 16, 2009, 05:23:00 PM
PS:  Years ago when I grew up in Portland, OR, time was 229-1212 (oficially), but you could dial 229 and any 4 numbers. 
Yes, that's the way the two DC numbers are, too.  Any four numbers will do.  I always found that interesting.
= DARRIN =



HobieSport

#4
In Calif. we used to just use "POP-CORN" for the time: 767-2676. I don't know when that service was discontinued. Nowadays I don't even know our time and weather phone numbers, because I always use the computer clock and Weather channel. I guess I should learn the phone numbers though, in case of a blackout.
-Matt

McHeath

Seems like our California time/temp service was shut down a year or two ago, I recall reading something about it in the paper.

jsowers

Here's mine, as mentioned earlier by Bingster. And CHestnut is the actual exchange here, though references to it went away by the mid-1960s except in a few funeral home ads and other businesses slow to change, and then it was a simple CH6 or CH3 and not spelled out.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1254.msg16179#msg16179
Jonathan

rp2813

I was still working for the Phone Company when they discontinued the Time of Day service here in California.  It was back in September of 2007.  The reason cited was that the equipment was way old and a maintenance nightmare.  I don't buy it.  The telcos have to have a way to measure call length and it shouldn't be rocket science to provide the time of day with modern technology.

The official number, I believe statewide and across telco territories, was ROchester 7-8900, but as stated above, you could dial 767 plus any other 4 digits, or just depress the switch hook 4 times and you'd get the Time Lady.  POPCORN was the way most people referred to calling for the time of day.

Verizon had already stopped maintaining their service well before it was discontinued.  I'd call POPCORN just to try out a phone I'd been working on, and the recording would advise me something like, "At the tone, Verizon time will be Nine Forty Three, and 84 seconds."  Alrighty then.

So Verizon was already starting to wean subscribers off of Time of Day service when they had barely begun the process of petitioning the California PUC to discontinue it.

Interestingly, I found out when I moved out of Verizon territory last year and into AT&T's that I couldn't put a recording on my Verizon number that would provide my new AT&T number.  It turns out that long ago when GTE bought up the various mom & pop telcos in this area, they inherited a contract with AT&T for that number referral service.  Verizon never developed one of their own.  The contract expired and AT&T wasn't inclined to renew it, so all Verizon subscribers in my area lost this option.  I complained to the PUC and was advised that this wasn't a mandatory service and that there was nothing they could do.  Needless to say, it left me with a very sour attitude toward Verizon, something many people shared due to their sub-par service over the years.  By the mid 90's, in my opinion Verizon's service left little room for complaint, but that all changed when I disconnected with them a year ago this month. 

Ralph
Ralph

JimH

Here in the Oakland County area north of Detroit, it used to be 333-6022, which is a Pontiac number of the old "FEderal" exchange.  I used to call it often to try out phones.
It was discontinued about five years ago.  Weather was simply WEA-THER.
Jim H.

rp2813

Here in the SF Bay Area, calling the weather was a toll call from anywhere but the local San Francisco exchanges.  So that number was off limits for most people.
Ralph

Dave203

In Connecticut on the old Snet lines you could dial 511 and hear time and temp and an advertisement. The number that 511 forwards to is (860) 524-8123 and can be called from anywhere and still works today  ;)


twocvbloke

From most landline phones, it's 123 to call the Speaking Clock (or "Timeline" as it's officially called), for the weather we just turn the telly on and wait for the news...  :D

dsk

The Norwegian telephone clock "died" at 14:00 January 15 2007. 

I don't know when the weather telephone disappeared, but we have 3 numbers with manual service:
+47

Oslo      -  tlf 820-90001
Bergen  - tlf 820-90002
Tromsø - tlf 820-90003

Nok 26,- per minute. ( $4.32)

dsk


tptech302

Around my area of South Central PA, the telephone companies Time and Temp was taken over by a car dealership some time ago. It use to be sponsored by local businesses before that.

The number is 717-263-5252

Mr. Bones

     Here in Lawrence, KS, it has been VIking (84) 2- 5115 since I moved here in 1972. Back then, you could dial any of the (then) existing prefixes 841, 842, 843-5115, and reach Time and Temperature.

     The area code, for many years, was 913...later, we got changed to 785.

     In 1972, it was sponsored by First National Bank. They have changed hands many times in the ensuing 41 + years, but the T&T still remains, thankfully.

Best regards!
Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus