At The Tone the Time Will Be....

I  still have 853-1212 lodged in my brain from years ago when i used to call that phone number to get the correct time when I lived in The Bad Place way back when.

Just last month, Southern Californians might have spied a "Service Withdrawn" message on their bills and an announcment that the Time of Day service had been discontinued. 

Now, the service hangs on only in Northern California and Nevada. Even those recordings are living on... uh...borrowed time.

It makes sense. The reason I haven't thought of the "Speaking Clock" service in years is because there are clocks everywhere in daily life now: on microwaves, cellphones, ipods, Tivos, computers, etc. Most young people don't even wear a wristwatch for the same reason.

Read more in this L.A. Times article, including a description of how it was large drums that  made the recordings work plus meet a few of the famous Time Lady voices of the 20th century.   

Comments

[Stacey]

I was bummed about the phone companu doing away with the talking lady... I was in my truck the other day and called time. To late, she was already gone...

To check time, go to http://www.time.gov/

[JRAD]

The part I will always missed is "At the tone the time will be, 4:20 EXACTLY".