WEBSITE: BROADCASTING TV YEARBOOK 1957-1958

[gregg75]

Stumbled upon this site by accident. Lots of imformation (stations, market population, etc.).
TONS OF COOL RETRO STATION IDs AND LOGOS.

It seems to scroll better if you downsize the page......then upsize when you find something interesting.

http://americanradiohistory.com/Broadcasting-Telecasting-57-58-Page-Range-Guide.htm

 

[KML0224]

What did they mean with phone numbers back then when they said "Baldwin3-XXXX" and what not?

 

[Tim L]

What did they mean with phone numbers back then when they said "Baldwin3-XXXX" and what not?

Back in the 50's and 60's Telephone Numbers had "Exchange Names" that were part of the number. For example, my old Telephone number when I was a kid was 866-3___. Until about 1963, it would be read as UNion6-3___..U(8) and N(6) being the first 2 numbers of the exchange name. In the above example, Baldwin3=XXXX would be 223-XXXX..Hoping that's not terribly confusing..Of course, this was long before 10-digit dialing and multiple new area codes..

 

[gbranch]

What did they mean with phone numbers back then when they said "Baldwin3-XXXX" and what not?

Hey kid! Get off my lawn! ;D

BAldwin3-1234 would often be abbreviated as BA3-1234.

All Number Calling replaced exchange names when the names started to become unpronouncable due to the increase in the numbers and exchanges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange_names

There is a funny episode of All In The Family where Edith wants to call someone (Dr. Shapiro, I think). She remembers the number as KL5-xxxx, but then realizes that the number has "changed", so she looks in the phone book and finds the number is now 555-xxxx. When she starts to call she looks at the phone dial and, with some astonishment, realizes that they "old" and "new" numbers are the same.

 

[w9wi]

There are MANY more Yearbooks beyond just 1957-1958 on that site. (1957-1958 may be one of the most interesting years as far as TV is concerned though)

BAldwin3-1234 is the same as 223-1234.

I'm on slightly weak ground with my knowledge below, so take that into account, but...

When telephone service was initially launched, you couldn't automatically dial another phone. You picked up the phone, and an operator answered. You told the operator who you wanted to talk to, and the operator put in a patch cord between your phone and the phone of the person you were calling. Of course, each of those phones had a number.

As phone service became more popular, it became impossible to put every phone in the city on the same switchboard. Multiple telephone "exchanges" would be built around the city. If you wanted to talk to someone on a different exchange, you asked your operator for "Baldwin 3 - 1234". She'd send your call to the Baldwin exchange, call the operator there, and ask them to patch you to 3-1234.

As exchanges became equipped to allow callers to dial their own calls, numbers were associated with the exchange names. If your exchange could auto-dial, you just dialed 223-1234; if it couldn't, you had to ask the operator.

 

[gregg75]

There are MANY more Yearbooks beyond just 1957-1958 on that site. (1957-1958 may be one of the most interesting years as far as TV is concerned though)

Yes I noticed that. If you go to like 1975 (takes a minute to download) cities are listed alphabetically
showing the stations they had in 1975. I noticed that L.A. had about 7 independent stations in 1975.
Some were probably more popular than others though.

 

[KeithE4]

What did they mean with phone numbers back then when they said "Baldwin3-XXXX" and what not?

Back in the 50's and 60's Telephone Numbers had "Exchange Names" that were part of the number. For example, my old Telephone number when I was a kid was 866-3___. Until about 1963, it would be read as UNion6-3___..U (8 ) and N (6) being the first 2 numbers of the exchange name. In the above example, Baldwin3=XXXX would be 223-XXXX..Hoping that's not terribly confusing..Of course, this was long before 10-digit dialing and multiple new area codes..

Before that, New York, Chicago, Philly, and Boston used 3-letter exchange names with 4-digit numbers. New York changed from 3L4N to 2L5N (in phone-geek terminology) in the early '30s, while Chicago, Boston, and Philly changed in the late '40s. If you were in Chicago in 1945 and your number was WABash 1234, it became WAbash 2-1234 in 1948, and then 922-1234 in the mid '60s.

Most other large cities used 2L4N (6 digit) numbers, such as LIncoln 1234 until the early '50s, when they changed to 2L5N. Smaller cities used 5 digit (2-1234) numbers, and small towns used 2, 3, or 4-digit numbers. Folks in really small towns picked up the receiver, turned the crank and yelled "Hello, Mabel!" well into the 1960s. ;D

 

[LKellerIII]

What did they mean with phone numbers back then when they said "Baldwin3-XXXX" and what not?

Back in the 50's and 60's Telephone Numbers had "Exchange Names" that were part of the number. For example, my old Telephone number when I was a kid was 866-3___. Until about 1963, it would be read as UNion6-3___..U(8) and N(6) being the first 2 numbers of the exchange name. In the above example, Baldwin3=XXXX would be 223-XXXX..Hoping that's not terribly confusing..Of course, this was long before 10-digit dialing and multiple new area codes..

The exchange names go back to the beginning of direct phone dialing - probably the 1920s. Ma Bell changed to all digit dialing in the mid 60s, and many people were outraged because they thought it would be harder to remember 7 numbers, as opposed to 5 numbers and a name.
My father (born 1912) stubbornly refused to give up the names. Some of them were kind of odd. I recall that my grandmother's number was HEmlock 6-801X. Hemlock is a poisonous plant that will kill you dead if you eat enough of it.

 

[Tim L]

One other thing I remember..In my small town area..(Magnolia, Waynesburg, East Sparta, Ohio). With the exchange number being 866, you could dial any other 866-number with just the last 4 digits of a phone number..And you could only call Canton locally..Of course as I said earlier, everybody does 10-digit dialing around here now..And with many Phone packages these days, long distance is included at no extra charge..

 

[KeithE4]

The exchange names go back to the beginning of direct phone dialing - probably the 1920s. Ma Bell changed to all digit dialing in the mid 60s, and many people were outraged because they thought it would be harder to remember 7 numbers, as opposed to 5 numbers and a name.
My father (born 1912) stubbornly refused to give up the names. Some of them were kind of odd. I recall that my grandmother's number was HEmlock 6-801X. Hemlock is a poisonous plant that will kill you dead if you eat enough of it.

Chicago held onto 2L5N until the early '70s, when the last of them were converted to all-numbers in the phone book (Illinois Bell had quit assigning 2L5N in favor of 7-digit numbers since around 1963, however).

 

[FreddyE1977]

as late as the mid 80's my grandparents were still confusing the heck out of all younger people by
giving out the number HEmlock1-****

 

[KML0224]

Thank you everyone on the phone information! That means my house number today would've been (860)-BALDWIN9-6XXX! Ha ha! Does that mean Alec Baldwin would get a penny for every call I made?

I remember the big deal made when Connecticut, after entirely being (203) since area codes started, split into (203) and (860) in October of 1995. Most of New Haven and Fairfield Counties retained (203) while the rest of the state became (860). The cities with TV licenses that kept the old (203) code were New Haven, Waterbury and Bridgeport. Then the 10-digit mess started in the last couple of years, requiring me to dial (860), even if it was for the deli across the street!

@ Greg Branch: As for being a kid? I'll be 41 next month, but I still thank you for that!

 

[fybush]

Thank you everyone on the phone information! That means my house number today would've been (860)-BALDWIN9-6XXX! Ha ha! Does that mean Alec Baldwin would get a penny for every call I made?

You'd have written it BAldwin 9-6xxx, or BA9-6xxx - and it could also have been BAker or a few other combinations. If you'd been in a 3L/4N city like Chicago or Boston, it would have been BALdwin 6xxx, and your number would have turned into 225-6xxx. I'm not sure there's any 3L combination that would have turned into 229; that's one reason they eventually moved from 3L/4N to 2L/5N. It's also a big reason for switching to all-number calling - there were no good letter combinations for numbers such as 55X, 57X and 95X.

 

[KeithE4]

I'm not sure there's any 3L combination that would have turned into 229; that's one reason they eventually moved from 3L/4N to 2L/5N.

BAXter or BAYlor.

It's also a big reason for switching to all-number calling - there were no good letter combinations for numbers such as 55X, 57X and 95X.

55x: KLondike (which was the exchange name used in movies and TV back in the day), KLamath, KLeenex. ;D
57x: KRamer.
Nothing for 95x.

 

[fybush]

55x: KLondike (which was the exchange name used in movies and TV back in the day), KLamath, KLeenex. ;D
57x: KRamer.
Nothing for 95x.

KRamer wouldn't have been used, though - the whole idea behind the "standard" set of exchange names was to avoid any potential for aural confusion when a customer was giving them to an operator. Is it KRamer or CRamer?

97X was another tough one...

 

[oldiesfan6479]

97X was another tough one...

I thought it was "97DJ"--or was it "99X"?

Oops, I must be thinking about radio.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

When telephone service was initially launched, you couldn't automatically dial another phone.
You picked up the phone, and an operator answered.

It was still the case in 1968 in Mayberry.

(Sarah must have had a long day--and had to work weekends, too.)

 

[azumanga]

You'd have written it BAldwin 9-6xxx, or BA9-6xxx - and it could also have been BAker or a few other combinations. If you'd been in a 3L/4N city like Chicago or Boston, it would have been BALdwin 6xxx, and your number would have turned into 225-6xxx.

Sure there was such a thing in the US? I always thought that all cities had the 2L/5N combination. I recall a local ad for a carpet business in Chicago around the late-1980s or early-1990s, which had the number "NAtional 2-9000"; if Chicago had a 3L/4N format, it would have switched to 2L/5N by the 1960s.

The only place in the world I know of that had 3L/4N was London, which had numbers such as REGent 4550, or something like that.

 

[fybush]

You'd have written it BAldwin 9-6xxx, or BA9-6xxx - and it could also have been BAker or a few other combinations. If you'd been in a 3L/4N city like Chicago or Boston, it would have been BALdwin 6xxx, and your number would have turned into 225-6xxx.

Sure there was such a thing in the US? I always thought that all cities had the 2L/5N combination. I recall a local ad for a carpet business in Chicago around the late-1980s or early-1990s, which had the number "NAtional 2-9000"; if Chicago had a 3L/4N format, it would have switched to 2L/5N by the 1960s.

Late 1940s, actually - see KeithE4's post on the previous page. One that I know for sure from Chicago was WHItehall, which became WHitehall-4. WBBM was WHItehall 6000/WHitehall 4-6000/944-6000 for many, many decades, though they gave up the number when radio and TV moved to separate locations a few years back.

 

[KeithE4]

You'd have written it BAldwin 9-6xxx, or BA9-6xxx - and it could also have been BAker or a few other combinations. If you'd been in a 3L/4N city like Chicago or Boston, it would have been BALdwin 6xxx, and your number would have turned into 225-6xxx.

Sure there was such a thing in the US? I always thought that all cities had the 2L/5N combination. I recall a local ad for a carpet business in Chicago around the late-1980s or early-1990s, which had the number "NAtional 2-9000";

There is also Boushelle's, another carpet business, who had HUdson 3-2700 (and presumably HUDson 2700 prior to 1948 - they started up in '46). They still use that number in their ads, AFAIK.

if Chicago had a 3L/4N format, it would have switched to 2L/5N by the 1960s.

Chicago changed from 3L4N to 2L5N in 1948. Boston and Philly also changed around that time, but I don't know the exact year. New York changed sometime around 1930 or '31.

The only place in the world I know of that had 3L/4N was London, which had numbers such as REGent 4550, or something like that.

NYC, Chicago, Philly, and Boston were the only US cities to use 3L4N.