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New WMEX CP

  • Thread starter Deleted member 64531
  • Start date

Not sure but I can recall going up to Montreal in the 90s and when I mentioned to a waiter we were from Boston he said, "Ah...254-5678"--as in, the WBZ call in number. Quebeckers tuning in to BZ at night. Bruins games, talk.
I recall the 266-6868 from Jerry Williams at RKO in 80s and 90s. Was 254 an Allston exchange? It too probably had a memorable letters-number exchange.

Spelling out words: DiscoverCard had/has something like 800-DIS-COVE(r). A Salem liquor store had 744-BEER I think.
WMEX number ends in WMEX
Frequency in numbers
WEEI local sports talk on 850: 742-0850 or something and now I think they have 937 as part of number.
WMWM was 745-9170 for awhile for 91.7
WMBR had one ending in 8810
 
254 was ALgonquin 4.... if you go far enough back into the 1950s-60s, the main WBZ switchboard was AL4-5670, later 254-5670 before most of the station numbers were moved to the 787 (STadium) exchange. My desk in the newsroom in the 90s was 787-7231.

The 254-1030 number was introduced in the late 80s, I think. It was the main call in number when I started in 1992, but it rolled over to 254-5678 (and then -5777 and -5832). We also had a 787- number that was "line 5," which wasn't part of the roll over but was a separate line for guests to call in on. And 931-1030 was the contest line for the rare occasions we ran those.

All of which is to say that for many years, probably right up until the move to Medford, you could call 254-5678 and it would still show up on line 2 at the producer's desk.
 
raccoonradio said:
WMBR had one ending in 8810
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As WTBS in the '70s, the line to reach the "Nite Owl" request show was (I think) 868-WTBS. There was a jingle played a couple of times during the show that included the couplet "Call 868-WTBS / We're standing by to take your request" and also mentioned two other numbers I can't recall. One was "from MIT" and the other "from the dormit'ry." Must have referred to some internal phone system at the school.
 
931 exchange as a contest line...for several stations, I believe.
WMBR website lists 617-253-8810 as request line as well as "text the DJ"
 
raccoonradio said:
931 exchange as a contest line...for several stations, I believe.
WMBR website lists 617-253-8810 as request line as well as "text the DJ"
Click to expand...
931-1668 for WRKO. Won three times on that line -- a couple of gallons of ice cream, the "30 Now Goldens" double LP, and a copy of Elton John's "Elton John" album (in 1971, the one with "Your Song" on it).
 
Time and temperature--before all the "new" area codes: 617 637 8537 or NESTLES like the chocolate. (Not anymore, I'd think)
"At the tone, New England Telephone time will be--nine forty. Exactly. (Beep!) Temperature, 43 Fahrenheit"

 
raccoonradio said:
Time and temperature--before all the "new" area codes: 617 637 8537 or NESTLES like the chocolate. (Not anymore, I'd think)
"At the tone, New England Telephone time will be--nine forty. Exactly. (Beep!) Temperature, 43 Fahrenheit"

Click to expand...
Any four numbers would work after 637, or 936, the weather number. Nestles had no sponsorship or endorsement deal with Ma Bell.
 
CTListener said:
Any four numbers would work after 637, or 936, the weather number. Nestles had no sponsorship or endorsement deal with Ma Bell.
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That was what I figured. "We were told that" as a memory device. That exchange then any four numbers..
I read that different exchanges were used in different parts of the country. We got 936.
In Northern CA it was POPCORN as a mnemnonic device.
"For all area codes in Northern California, and on the West Coast generally, the reserved exchange was 767 which was often indicated by its phoneword, POPCORN; the service was discontinued in 2007."--Wiki. "Speaking clock"

Ad slogan (area code)"MAT-TRES..and leave the last S off for Savings"
 
raccoonradio said:
That was what I figured. "We were told that" as a memory device. That exchange then any four numbers..
I read that different exchanges were used in different parts of the country. We got 936.
Click to expand...
936 was nationwide, though there may have been a few individual exceptions. You could dial most area codes and the 936 number and get their local weather forecasts. I know. I did it as a kid, after seeing it demonstrated and explained at the New York World's Fair, and got into BIG trouble when Dad got the phone bill!
 
CTListener said:
931-1668 for WRKO. Won three times on that line -- a couple of gallons of ice cream, the "30 Now Goldens" double LP, and a copy of Elton John's "Elton John" album (in 1971, the one with "Your Song" on it).
Click to expand...
I recall 931-1668....Also 879-1057 for WKOX-FM and early WVBF Too....And WAAF had a Boston line for a while in the mid '70s...648-1073...
 
Time Traveler said:
I recall 931-1668....Also 879-1057 for WKOX-FM and early WVBF Too....And WAAF had a Boston line for a while in the mid '70s...648-1073...
Click to expand...
WVBF: "879-1057. 969-1058." This in the mid-70s. (Not totally sure about the exchange for the second number.)

WTKK: "617-822-1969. Verizon Wireless callers 'Pound ninety-six nine' (#969) from a Verizon Wireless phone."

WRKO: "1-877-469-4322. That's the toll-free number for The Howie Carr Show."
 
One more factoid on those old time and weather numbers. In the phone book before everyone got used to all-numerical, the exchanges for them were given as WEather 6 and MEridian 7.
 
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