# What were those Time service phone numbers you could call? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377 "2009-10-11T03:09:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/21 "2009-10-11T07:45:13Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I think ours was had ULrich 3-1212. I remember it as UL 3-1212, which is kind of odd since letter prefixes were not in common use when I was a kid. I guess that’s the way my mother learned it and that’s what she taught me. It worked in Orange County and Los Angeles despite different area codes, so I assumed it was a national number and only learned otherwise tonight. As others have mentioned, it was only the first three numbers that mattered. After discovering this I occasionally amused myself by dialing 853-FUCK. The voice always sounded so prim and proper. “The time lady” is apparently alive and well in Britain and known as [the speaking clock](http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/speaking_clock.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/22 "2009-10-11T08:09:46Z")
We had a local Tel number, “General Telephone Time” that gave both time and temp, it just went out of service about a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/23 "2009-10-11T09:17:53Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > For a good time, call TI4-8400. > > It still works in DC. I grew up in No. VA and TI4 + any four numbers got you the time, and I thought that worked anywhere in the US with any area code. I’m in Kabul, but anyone care to try it. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/24 "2009-10-11T09:25:34Z")
I grew up in California, where the prefix 767 and any four digits would get you the time lady. Most people remembered it as POPCORN (767-2676), however. It would say, “At the tone, pacific daylight time will be six thirteen and forty seconds… \. At the tone, pacific daylight time will be six thirteen and fifty seconds…\.” The message was ten seconds long, and it would continue indefinitely. At one point we had three-way calling, which was kind of a new feature, and I remember my brother and I goofing around and calling the time service at the same time as another person so they would answer the phone and be confused (hey, we were dorks). We were totally delighted when one of our friends on the other end of the phone shouted to whoever was in the room with her, “oh my god, the popcorn lady called me!” ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/25 "2009-10-11T09:27:12Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > It was a public service in an age where there was no easy way to synchronize clocks and clocks tended to run fast or slow, or stopped if you didn’t wind them. You had to wait until the news came on the TV or for someone on the radio to announce the time or tune your shortwave set to WWV. > > In this day and age of computers and internet, you can get the exact time by turning on your computer. It corrects every 24 hours by default. You can check the program guide on your cable or satellite tv. > > We’re a lot more conscious of time down to the exact second these days. When I was a kid, it wasn’t uncommon to go into a house and see three different clocks with the times differing by 15 minutes. And it didn’t really matter all that much. But if a couple of the clocks stopped, you called the time number so you could set all of the clocks. I always had the notion that it was a ‘replacement’ for the days when the phones were still connected by live operators - back then you could just ask the operator if they had the time. (The live operators might not be ultra-accurate, I admit.) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/26 "2009-10-11T12:37:06Z")
> [@doubled](#): > > But why were there so many of these free time services back then? They don’t exist as much today but I can’t think of anything that changed since then which would have made them less relevant. (Everybody back then had as many clocks as we do today, right?) Did people just sit around back then saying “Wow, I wish i knew if my watch was correct down to the very second?” Watches and clocks were not particularly accurate until quartz and electric movements were developed. A clock could lose or gain minutes over a day, so it was worthwhile to check the time from time to time. Also, not everyone had watches. Finally, they were making money for the phone company (you paid for the call if you didn’t have unlimited calling, and they’d sell ads for them). ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/27 "2009-10-11T12:41:16Z")
I just checked: ti4 + any four numbers still gets you the time in DC, from Kabul, no less. Why yes I am bored, as a matter of fact. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/28 "2009-10-11T12:46:05Z")
> [@doubled](#): > > But why were there so many of these free time services back then? They don’t exist as much today but I can’t think of anything that changed since then which would have made them less relevant. (Everybody back then had as many clocks as we do today, right?) Did people just sit around back then saying “Wow, I wish i knew if my watch was correct down to the very second?” In the 60s and 70s a lot of our clocks and watches were either wind-up mechanical devices or electrical motor-powered but without any cool quartz chips. The battery-powered devices were often miserably wrong. Accuracy on the AC powered ones was not even so great. The power might go out and then you had to reset your electric clocks. Gonna depend on your windups? They are 8 minutes apart from each other! Also, it was a local number you could foist off on your toddler kids who really really wanted to have the fun of making a telephone call! ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/29 "2009-10-11T13:20:12Z")
Akron, Ohio, was 762-0111 for all my life. When the sponsor (bank? utility company?) sponsoring it announced it was discontinuing it, the _Akron Beacon Journal_ stepped in. I just dialed and it’s disconnected. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![rayman5321](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@rayman5321](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayman5321)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/30 "2009-10-11T13:25:43Z")
I grew up in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. The number was 337-1212. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/31 "2009-10-11T13:45:03Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > When I was growing up we dialed POPCORN for the time. Later found out that 767 (POP) was the prefix for the time service, you could dial any four numbers you wanted. Yeah, and I’d tell my friends that I had my OWN, PRIVATE number for time: POP, and then my first name. Then again, I also pitied the woman whose job it was to sit there 24 hours a day and say the time over and over again. “Does she ever get distracted and say the time wrong?” I thought. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/32 "2009-10-11T14:11:11Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Then again, I also pitied the woman whose job it was to sit there 24 hours a day and say the time over and over again. “Does she ever get distracted and say the time wrong?” I thought. Is she friends with the “Mind the gap.” lady? ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/33 "2009-10-11T14:27:35Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > I always had the notion that it was a ‘replacement’ for the days when the phones were still connected by live operators - back then you could just ask the operator if they had the time. (The live operators might not be ultra-accurate, I admit.) The live operators are not ultra-accurate because they are not allowed to be, at least these days. I was one from 2003-2005, and even in that so-called modern era, people called to ask us for the time all the time. We were told that we were only allowed to offer “approximate time”, which we did by looking up at the clock on the wall. This was because some law apparently now banned the phone company from offering the exact time and temperature, and they were supposed to open up the competition to other businesses. I know that the Twin Cities had (maybe still has) a commercially-run number with advertising. (We were not allowed to give out that number, or any number, because that required a call to directory assistance, which was run by the folks across the room. “0” is free, “411” costs money. You’re not getting nuttin’ for free.) The problem was that, while perhaps Twin Cities businesses were willing to pony up the money for a time/temp line, our office also served many rural areas which now basically had no such service now that the phone company discontinued it. Or perhaps those people never got used to calling those numbers in the first place and always called “0”. I’m not sure. All I know is that when you’re out in the sticks and your power goes out, “approximate time” is good enough for many people. We also would get asked for the date more often than you might think (no one told me I couldn’t give the exact date, so when budget cuts discontinued the calendar on the wall, I bought one to keep at my workstation.) You have no idea how many confused old people there are out there and the service we offered by letting them call us so their relatives get some rest. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/34 "2009-10-11T17:46:56Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > I remember it as UL 3-1212, which is kind of odd since letter prefixes were not in common use when I was a kid. That’s what I remember too, but sometimes people did say ULrich. Later it was usually 853-1212. > [@](#): > > “The time lady” is apparently alive and well in Britain and known as [the speaking clock](http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/speaking_clock.htm). On a _Fawlty Towers_ episode, Basil speculates it didn’t pay its bill, since they can’t reach it for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/35 "2009-10-11T18:00:08Z")
> [@hekk](#): > > Milwaukee was 844-4444, and that worked until relatively recently. And it was run by the phone company. > > Weather was WEather 6-1212. Err, 936-1212. I thought it was 844-1414. Hmm maybe it was both, I want to say that either weather or time would work with any suffix. ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/36 "2009-10-11T18:15:57Z")
In the Atlanta area, you can call 770-455-7141 and get a short church advertisement, the time, and temperature! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/37 "2009-10-11T18:26:24Z")
> [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](#): > > In the Atlanta area, you can call 770-455-7141 and get a short church advertisement, the time, and temperature! "The time and temperature is brought to you by the Atlanta Baptist Church. It is now 8:43 A.M. and it’s BURNING IN HELL! 😃 Not the real announcement. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/38 "2009-10-11T18:38:33Z")
Noone’s mentioned yet the modern equivalent: [www.time.gov](http://www.time.gov) EDIT: wow, there must be something wrong with my computer’s clock. It synchronized last night but is already 15 seconds off. Btw, I remember this site was exactly the same 9 years ago. It’s weathering time well. ---
**Author:** ![stanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@stanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stanger)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/39 "2009-10-11T18:47:37Z")
Here in San Antonio, you call CApitol 6-3232, and you get the “time lady” for the Frost Bank. You also get a 5 second bank promo and the downtown temperature. It was working back in the mid-sixties, and probably went back much farther than that, and still works today. Funny how the ladys voice doesn’t seem to have changed after all these years. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377/40 "2009-10-11T19:19:22Z")
> [@hekk](#): > > Weather was WEather 6-1212. Err, 936-1212. IIRC, same number in Chicago, and time was CAthedral 8-1212. Like others have mentioned, any last 4 digits would work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-those-time-service-phone-numbers-you-could-call/513377.md?page=3)