superphreak

May 1, 2018 11:15 AM

Telephone World hosts, among other gems, Evan Doorbell's Phone Tapes, where he explains exactly what you're hearing in Ma Bell's wires in the 70s and 80s.

"These programs - and the Long Distance series - are probably the most user-friendly phone recordings; Sorry for the gaps in explanatory data; God willing I will be able to extend the "How I Became a Phone Phreak" series to explain all that stuff."

posted by the man of twists and turns (8 comments total)

This is ridiculously geeky stuff, but I have to say the guy's voice is oddly soothing all on its own. I could listen to him read the proverbial phone book.
posted by Alensin at 11:24 AM on May 1, 2018

Just going to leave this here. https://textfiles.com/phreak/
posted by mikelieman at 11:34 AM on May 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh MY! Turns out that I am involved in some of those! ( I'll leave which ones for the historians to deduce. )
posted by mikelieman at 11:36 AM on May 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

Evan's previous site, which has stuff going back to the 60s.
posted by rhizome at 12:16 PM on May 1, 2018

there used to be some great phone company lore sites by retired AT&T techs, but they mostly seem to have gone under
posted by thelonius at 12:42 PM on May 1, 2018

there used to be some great phone company lore sites by retired AT&T techs, but they mostly seem to have gone under

The Bell System Technical Journal (1922-1983)
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:10 PM on May 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

Last I checked, the Telecom Digest archives were still available, with all the fun anecdotes and geeky detail about how it all worked that have been compiled over 20+ years of operation.
posted by wierdo at 1:58 PM on May 1, 2018

Plenty of other resources and primary documents are available on the official website of Phil Lapsley's wonderful book Exploding the Phone.
posted by theartandsound at 9:26 PM on May 1, 2018 [1 favorite]