# What was the old telephone number to get the time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177 "2014-08-22T06:19:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/41 "2014-08-22T18:31:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Ours was 555-1212, for both time and weather. Yes, the phone company did actually use 555 for something. > [@CurtC](#): > > Are you sure you’re remembering that right? \-555-1212 was the standard for directory assistance. If I was in Texas and wanted help finding the phone number for a person in New Mexico, I would dial 505-555-1212. That worked anywhere in the country. I guess your local exchange could have set it up so that someone calling that number from within the same area code would get the T&T. long distance directory assistance in that area code. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/42 "2014-08-22T18:43:48Z")
Just called my local T&T number, and it was 5 minutes slow. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/43 "2014-08-22T18:53:35Z")
Come to think of it, I’m _not_ sure I’m remembering it right, because I’m also remembering a phone number WE1-1212. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/44 "2014-08-22T20:12:27Z")
As I recall the only numbers that mattered for POPCORN were POP, at least in the California Bay Area up through the early 2000s everything in the 767-#### exchange was the time announcement. Here in San Antonio one of the hometown banks has a time announcement number (226-3232) that makes you sit through about a 10 second ad before the time (only to the minute), date and downtown temperature is announced. I know I used to use the time announcement growing up in Northeast Wisconsin as a kid, I was a stickler for my watch being right, but I’ve long forgotten the number. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/45 "2014-08-22T20:20:29Z")
In Denver it was 222-8811 (or actually the last two digits could be any digits, but 1 was the fastest one). This went away when Denver got rid of the whole 222 exchange. But you could still call the atomic clock in Boulder. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/46 "2014-08-22T20:29:11Z")
Here in Central MD (former C&P Telephone country), dialing 200-200-xxxx would read you back the number you were calling from. A lineman had me do it once when he was working on our phones. I haven’t tried it lately. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/47 "2014-08-22T20:49:53Z")
And this brings us neatly onto the Irish obscene phone call: “Hello darlin’ … Would ye be wearin’ frilly knickers now? … Would ye have a nice lacy bra on? … Do ye have nice perky little boobs? … And will ye stop tellin’ me the time when I’m talkin’ to ye?” ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/48 "2014-08-23T02:11:55Z")
In the days of my youth, it was RI7-1411. At some point, you could also get time and temp by dialing 544-5444. But the service was discontinued, at least a couple if decades ago. For the hell of it, I just tried dialing both of these numbers. Both “have been disconnected.” My guess is that they’ve never been reassigned. Some folks have long memories, and it would be pretty lousy to be on the receiving end of mistaken calls. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/49 "2014-08-23T02:26:48Z")
I just called the number from where I grew up, and it’s still operating. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/50 "2014-08-23T03:36:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > When I was growing up in Torrance, it was 376-0111. (213) 835-1212 also worked. > > Now, as an ATT customer, dialing 0 for the operator gets an announcement of the time BEFORE the call is put through. No, Kaylasdad, it was 853-1212. I remember, because it was originally in the old ULRICH exchange. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/51 "2014-08-23T19:33:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Come to think of it, I’m _not_ sure I’m remembering it right, because I’m also remembering a phone number WE1-1212. Yep. 216-WE1-1212. I just dialed it…still works. Used to have to dial it every day, and always remembered it as WE(ather)1-1212 since it is for Time and Temperature. Nowadays I have to add the 216…miss the days when I didn’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/52 "2014-08-23T19:58:55Z")
Bob & Ray: “At the tone, it will be exactly 10 minutes before the correct time.” ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/53 "2014-08-23T22:46:45Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Bob & Ray: > > “At the tone, it will be exactly 10 minutes before the correct time.” Bob & Ray’s clock was slow. Kermit Schafer had one that kept proper time. He published this blooper: “At the tone, it will be the correct time.”😛 ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/54 "2014-08-23T22:52:57Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > 844-1414 for me and 936-1212 for the weather. Me too. Ffx County Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/55 "2014-08-23T23:20:59Z")
867-53…Nm ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/56 "2014-08-24T03:40:33Z")
I was testing a new bluetooth setup today, and needed a number I could call multiple times. Locally, we have 954-748-444 for time and temperature. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177/57 "2014-08-25T17:30:35Z")
You can still get the time from the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock by calling 202-762-1401. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-old-telephone-number-to-get-the-time/696177.md?page=2)