Hey, what's the time? 8 o'clock. You sure? Yeah, I'm sure. It's 8 o'clock Wednesday. I thought it was later than that. It was, but not anymore. You better be here at 8 o'clock Wednesday night for the Personal Computer Show.
Well, I'm Joe King, and I'd like you all to join me on the Personal Computer Show Wednesday nights from 8 to 9.
Hanky, Dave Burstein, and I will be doing the same show we've been doing for the last decade or so.
News from the world of hardware and software, reviews of the latest and greatest, interviews with the folk who make all this work, and most important of all, calls from you in the audience.
We'll try to answer your questions about computers and the problems you're having with them.
So please tune in, whether you use a Mac or an IBM, or you don't even use a computer.
There'll be something for you on the Personal Computer Show, here on WBAI 99.5 FM, from 8 to 9, every Wednesday night.
Yes, but it's not Wednesday, it's Tuesday, and it's 8 o'clock, which means it's time for...
Off the Hook.
Off the Hook.
Off the Hook.
And a very good evening to you, one and all.
This is Emanuel Goldstein here in New York.
Excuse me.
And Bernie S. over there in Philadelphia.
Oh, on hold in Philadelphia.
Bernie, you're there live now, right?
Now I'm here, yes.
Okay, I'm sorry about that.
But we had quite an experience over the weekend at the micro-broadcasting convention.
And we certainly have that to talk about and to bring folks up to date on.
Because there's all kinds of interesting things happening now and on the horizon.
And, of course, we had some fun and adventures with our friends over at Sprint PCS.
In fact, that is still going on right now.
You may not know it.
But all kinds of exciting things are happening involving Sprint PCS.
Some of which, Bernie, you do not know about.
Wow.
Well, I'm talking to you over Sprint PCS right now, so that's apropos.
Okay, well, we'll try to be careful as to what we do.
But I guarantee you, by the end of tonight, there's going to be a bit of mayhem down there.
Uh-oh.
Yeah.
They're not going to like the things that we come up with on this particular show.
Well, now, we had, I suppose we might as well dive into it first by telling what happened with the, I guess, daylight savings thing that took place this weekend.
As many of you know, daylight savings time happened.
And that, of course, causes all kinds of problems for people in the technological world.
And I'm still walking around finding clocks I didn't know I had, microwave oven clocks, fax machine clocks.
You know, they all have to be changed at some point.
You know, in the car, there's a clock.
You know, and the computers are smart.
The computers know to change at a certain time and date.
They just take care of it automatically and they let you know sometimes.
Hey, I took care of this.
You don't have to worry about it.
Which is great, except in the case of Windows 95 in the fall.
When, for some reason, they decide to, at 2 o'clock, it says, I've changed the time to 1 o'clock as I'm supposed to because daylight savings time no longer exists.
And then at 2 o'clock, when the second 2 o'clock comes around, it does it again.
And it causes more problems when it does that.
It doesn't do it a third time.
It only does it twice.
But that doesn't happen in the spring because the clocks move ahead.
Now, we decided, since we have Sprint PCS phones, that it would be fun to see how they changed.
Because, as we've said before on this show, that the clock is set not by the user, but by the network.
So, when you see the time on your phone, it's coming directly from the Sprint PCS switch, which I guess, you know, you get the time for free, I guess, is, you know, they should maybe promote that.
And a free clock with every phone.
Free clock, yes.
And a free date, too.
Whatever you call that.
You always know what date it is.
In some cases, you know, the day, too.
I don't get the day of the week because I have a cheapo phone, but you get the day of the week, I believe.
Yes.
So, you know, today is Tuesday.
I do.
And I don't.
It must be Belgium.
Yeah.
So, the thing is, we thought, what's going to happen at 2 o'clock is going to go from 1.59 to 3.
And we thought it would be kind of cool to find out.
Now, Bernie, why don't you tell us what happened?
Well, we stayed up entirely too late.
You know, we've got nothing better to do if you stay up late to watch the clocks change on your PCS phone.
I have to say, we've got all kinds of looks from the people down there.
I mean, you know, there's plenty of strange people that go to a micro-broadcasting convention, you know, that run pirate radio stations.
But I think we were stranger than they were because of the things we were doing, you know, with phones.
So, we stayed up way too late.
Actually, we called for PCS first to ask them how this was going to work, to find out if they had anticipated such a thing,
or whether they were as blindsided as some of these mainframe operators are as far as a year 2000 bug or whatever lies around the corner.
But she assured me, this female representative at Sprint PCS, she assured me that it was all taken care of
and that at exactly 2 a.m., my PCS, Sprint PCS handset would reflect Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
So, I was excited to see my clock turn backwards at 2 a.m.
So, we stayed up.
And we were quite disappointed.
Okay, well, there's more to the story.
Well, the clock came and went.
We called and called back.
And they said, well, maybe it'll happen later this night.
And, you know, we waited another hour.
We thought, well, maybe they have it done by Central Time.
So, we thought that's where their representative we talked to was in Texas.
We thought, well, maybe Central Time.
Is that Central Time, Texas?
I believe it is, yes.
Okay, so we figured, well, maybe it's where their headquarters is.
And she couldn't tell me where their main computer was.
It just surprised me.
So, anyhow, we waited until Central Time.
3 o'clock came and went.
And nothing.
So, actually, the clock would have jumped forward.
That's what we were looking for.
But it didn't happen.
So, finally, we were just too tired and we went to sleep.
While I was on the phone, though, I asked them some other questions about some other service problems that you and I and other people were experiencing.
But maybe we should jump to that topic shortly.
So, Monday, or I'm sorry, Sunday morning, was it, we awoke to find that our clock still had not changed.
And was it the same way with your Omnipoint handset, or had that changed?
No, Omnipoint is controlled by the user.
Ah, okay.
Well, anyhow, I called Sprint PCS back and they said, well, reboot your phone.
And rebooted the phone and then it reflected the correct time.
Well, what puzzles me is if the system clock is controlled by, controlled and kept timely by the central computer, by the network, why was it not reflected?
They were at a loss to explain this to me.
But I do have the correct time now, albeit it's a few seconds off compared to National Bureau of Standards, which I can tune into at 10 megahertz on my shortwave radio.
Have you noticed that?
I have not.
They're two or three seconds off, according to the government's atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado.
I never really checked that closely.
I figure it's close enough.
You know me.
Yes, I do.
So, anyhow, I don't know, I don't think it was that big a deal, but, you know, if I had an important meeting in the morning and was relying upon my supposedly always trustworthy clock on my Sprint PCS handset, I would have been late for that appointment.
Uh-huh, yeah.
And as it was, we were late about an hour to the micro-broadcast.
Well, the reason we were late an hour was because we stayed up all night trying to see what would happen to the stupid phone.
So, it's still Sprint's fault.
Uh-huh.
Okay, well, actually, I have to confess, I was away just now because I have a special 800, I still call them 800 numbers, even though they're 888 numbers, but this is a 888 number that I want to call, and the only way I had recorded it was by calling it before on my Sprint PCS phone, but I apparently made more than 10 calls coming in here.
And you lost the number.
And it just scrolled right off the screen, so I had to sort of go into my brain and find it again, and fortunately, I just did.
So, I really didn't hear anything you just said.
But did you get into the scientific explanation that the Sprint representatives gave us?
About the time issue?
Yeah, about the time and about the satellites and things like that.
Well, no, I didn't get into that.
I said that that was a topic we should discuss after the time issue, but when I called the night before the clocks were to move ahead forward an hour,
I also brought up that I've been having some service problems the past few weeks, as you have, and other people I've talked to who I told them how great Sprint PCS is, and now it's not, and I'm looking like an utter fool for recommending a service that's no longer reliable.
Yeah, people somehow blame us, you know, when we recommend something and then it goes bad.
Well, people look to me, and you, and other people in this circle for advice for this sort of stuff, and then when things change up on us, we look bad.
Things do change with time.
Well, I was asking about problems that we're all experiencing on Sprint PCS, such as dropped calls when you're in a stationary position.
So you're not moving around, but the call just vanishes.
Okay.
You make a call, and you get a reorder, like a fast busy, or you make a call, and it just doesn't go through, or you make a call, and it appears to go through on your display as its seconds are ticking off, but you hear no audio, and the person at the other end, their phone rings, and they hear no audio, and all these sorts of things are happening.
This has been happening to me over the past two months.
I don't know.
What time frame have you noticed this has been getting worse?
Well, I always have trouble with the message notification, you know, taking sometimes hours to get to you.
As far as actual problems with calls, I don't know, it varies because I'm in different areas.
Some areas it's good, some areas it's bad.
I've noticed a lot of congestion recently, and I assume that's because a lot of people are signing up, and they're not really getting more lines, which is, you know, not very nice.
Well, I asked the very polite and seemingly helpful Sprint PCS representative Saturday night, you know, what would be the cause of this?
I said, you know, I've addressed this to them repeatedly, the problems persist, you know, I've taken to not recommending the service to other people now because of these problems.
Right.
Actually, it was a gentleman who I spoke to that night, and he said, well, you know, we've been having a lot of high winds out in various parts of the country.
High winds, yes.
High winds due to El Nino.
El Nino, yes.
El Nino.
So El Nino strikes again.
He surmised that some of these system problems could indeed be due in part to El Nino.
And I said, well, you know, I've heard El Nino being blamed for a lot of things, but it's the first time I've heard it being blamed for affecting a wireless communication system in an area where El Nino really hasn't had any effect on the weather.
Well, affecting the onset of daylight savings time, too.
Like Pennsylvania.
Well, we're getting to that.
Mm-hmm.
We're getting to that.
Then he said the other reason could be sunspots, which can have an effect on certain radio frequencies, but that's at a 1,900 megahertz.
Yeah.
Maybe on the shortwave band, like below 30 megahertz, you'll use them.
Or on CB, which is like 27 megahertz.
The current PCS is at 1,900 megahertz, and those frequencies, sunspots, just don't really have a bunch of an effect unless it's an amazing solar flare that would, you know, that would fry you.
Okay.
We need to get to the end of the story, Bernie.
Okay.
To make a long story short, you've been egging me on, like, with all this, and I've been trying to be as detailed as possible.
So he said sunspot's going to cause this problem.
So I told him I was kind of dubious about that.
The next morning I called another Sprint PCS representative to ask her comment on this, and she said that, well, yes, the high winds may have blown their satellite a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right.
High winds up by the satellite.
That's right.
At first of all, I was surprised to hear her say we're a satellite because, as far as I knew, from my research, the Sprint PCS network is a terrestrial network.
It doesn't go through satellites.
It goes through fiber optics.
But anyway, I said, are you sure?
Satellite?
Both local and long distance and local calls are carried by satellite?
She said, oh, yes.
I said, well, just from my experience with ham radio satellites and that sort of thing, I know that there's a time delay with any kind of satellite telephone communication.
It's like the better part of a second it takes to at least a good half second for the signal to travel the speed of light all the way up to the 22,300-mile Clark belt, first discovered by Arthur C. Clark, if you don't know.
And I said, well, how have you solved the speed of light issue?
How have you - I told her I wasn't experiencing this latency problem with Sprint PCS, this delay.
Like, you know, in the old days when you had a call to go through a satellite, you knew it because it sounded, you know, through a big echo chamber.
Yeah, it was a good one-second delay or something.
Yeah, it was really bad.
I said, well, you folks deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.
You have solved - you've proven Einstein wrong.
You have been able to make your signals travel to the satellite and back faster than the speed of light.
Amazing.
Broken the speed of light.
I'll bet Omnipoint can't do that.
Warp speed.
Uh-huh.
I think PCS signals travel at warp speed.
Then you actually sit down to calculate whether it was warp one, warp two, certainly not warp nine.
Well, you know, time gets affected when you go that fast.
Exactly.
So that was the theory we finally came up with.
You and I and some other technical types that were with us that weekend.
Surmise.
Since the signals were traveling greater than the speed of light, it must have caused a tear or a ripple in a space-time continuum.
Must have been.
Causing the -
An anomaly.
An anomaly, exactly.
Exactly.
Causing the time to shift backwards, time warp, exactly one hour.
Uh-huh.
Which would have compensated exactly for the one-hour anomaly we're experiencing by not having the clock move forward an hour.
So it's interesting how this all works out.
We discovered not only a problem, but we found out why the problem was occurring.
It was because of this ripple, this anomaly in the space-time continuum caused by sprint PCS signals traveling faster than the speed of light.
Now, in the end, we still don't know what happened with the daylight savings time shift.
With my phone, it seemed to have changed on its own by 10 a.m.
With other people, they had to turn their phone on and off for it to work.
Uh, someone else I know, their phone, uh, uh, stayed on standard time until they got into a strong signal area, then it went into, uh, daylight savings time.
So we're going to have to wait until October to really, you know, experiment with this one more time.
And by then, by then, who knows how fast they'll be going.
I can't wait.
Yeah.
Maybe, uh, if this continues, uh, we may, uh, we may be experiencing, uh, other things from the past.
Sort of like a deja vu all over again as these sprint PCS signals travel faster than the speed of light.
Now, Bernie, I have sort of, um, a revelation here.
It's something that I actually, um, was playing around with today.
Uh, you ever, you ever call Star 2 on your sprint phone?
I do, and it doesn't work like it used to.
Well, why not?
What do you get?
Uh, a lot of times I don't even get a connection now.
Uh-huh.
Um, I ended up just dialing the, uh, the 800 number or the 888 number, whatever it is.
Yeah, the 888 number.
That's what I want to try right now.
Uh, just to...
Do you have that number?
I do have that number because I remembered it in my head, and, uh, I managed to figure out what it was.
So we're going to call that now.
And I'm going to...
Well, first of all, the first time we call it, it's probably not going to work.
In fact, it might not work a few times because it's sort of a trick to this.
Uh, what I'm trying to do will always work with Star 2.
So every sprint PCS customer has the ability to do this.
And it's something that you're really not supposed to be able to do.
But, uh, apparently the good folks at Sprint think it's okay.
Um, when we call this number the first time, you're going to hear this sound like a slamming door.
I don't know why.
You just hear this sound like a slamming door.
Like this?
Almost exactly like that, yeah.
Wow.
That's, uh, that's incredible.
Uh, so, yeah, you do hear that sound.
Um, and then it goes to a recording saying we're going to connect your call now or something, something bizarre like that.
So let's, uh, get a dial tone.
And we're going to call the number.
Listen carefully.
Well, was I right or was I right?
That was a door slam.
I've ever heard one.
Please hold while we connect your call.
Please hold while we slam the door in your face.
The Mysteries of Sprint.
Ask what that sound is.
You think they call their own numbers?
Never.
In fact, I know that they don't ever call it because I found something else.
All of our advocates are currently assisting other customers.
Okay, their advocates are busy right now, so, uh.
What do they call them advocates?
I don't know.
They've never advocated anything on my behalf.
They should call them counselors because that's what people need when they go through this service.
Um, what, uh, what we want to do, though, is not get an advocate or a counselor or a representative or whatnot.
We want to get something computer-ish.
And I've discovered through a couple hours of playing around today and things I really shouldn't be playing with
that you can use that slamming door to your advantage by hitting touch tones as the door slams.
Now, listen to what happens.
I'm going to try to hit some ones as the door slams.
Stop reading.
There we go.
All of our advocates are currently assisting other customers.
I might have hit too many ones.
So, we're going to try it again.
Didn't want to get it wrong, you know?
This time I'll try to hit it as the door slams.
How's that?
Reaction.
Yeah, the timing is everything.
Ah.
Okay, and one more.
Too slow.
Thank you for using Sprint PCS Connection.
We have a different...
To obtain account information, press one.
Okay.
To learn more about features such as voicemail, caller ID, and call forwarding, press two.
Now, this is the best part.
Take a listen to this.
When I hit one for automated account information.
Please enter your Sprint PCS phone number, including the area code.
All right.
Let's try this number.
And I'm going to turn down the audio so that nobody can hear what I am dialing.
And I'm also going to talk over it in case, for some reason, you can hear the sounds.
Listen to this.
As of April 7th, 1998, at 5.22 a.m., your account balance is $0.
Your last payment of $143.47 was posted to your account on March 19th, 1998.
To repeat this information, press eight.
Now, Bernie, do those numbers sound familiar?
Those particular numbers, they sound very familiar.
In fact, that sounds like that was my last Sprint PCS bill.
That was your last bill.
In fact, I was able to find that out just by calling this number and figuring out a way to get around the slamming door.
I feel so violated.
You should feel violated.
And the thing is, what makes it even worse is that you don't need to play that slamming door trick if you have a Sprint PCS phone.
All you have to do is dial star 2 and then hit 1 for an option and simply enter the phone number.
They say, on the Sprint phone, they say, for verification, enter your phone number.
There's no verification.
They don't verify anything.
All they do is take that number and give you all the information you want.
And they take great pains to verbally ask you your spoken password whenever you're requesting account information.
They could just as easily have you spell that password out on the touchtone phone.
That's true, too, although that password is pretty worthless, too, from what I hear.
Listen, I checked it.
What do they call it?
The automated whatever.
The automated privacy invasion feature.
Yeah, that feature.
I've used it to check my own balance in the past.
And about a month ago, I checked it.
And it was almost two weeks behind on updating a payment I made in cash at my local Sprint PCS store.
And I called repeatedly saying, well, listen, you know, I can see it taking a couple of days to reflect this payment.
But it was a glitch between two different computers Sprint PCS had.
But the computer system that the person I was talking to, her screen showed that, yes, I had made the payment when I said I made it.
But the automated system said I was a deadbeat and hadn't paid that I was in arrears, that I hadn't paid my bill, and it was past due.
And I was quite concerned about this maybe showing up on my credit record or whatever.
And apparently now it's current.
But it was two weeks behind, which is pretty disturbing.
That is disturbing.
But, you know, I'm more disturbed by the fact that they don't fix things like this.
In fact, I called them to ask them about this.
I know people who have managed to block that feature.
So you can block it, but they don't think you can.
If you call a customer representative now and ask them to block it, they'll say, you can't.
There's no way to block it.
Of course, they're wrong because you can.
I've seen it happen.
But I think what people need to do, Sprint customers, that is, is call them right now, or after the show, anyway.
The number, obviously, if you have a Sprint phone, is Star 2.
There's no charge for that from the phone, except for the radiation going into your head.
Or you can use a regular phone and dial 1-888-211-4727 and simply, well, first, play around all you want and find out everyone's balance.
And, you know, you can go through random numbers.
You can go through strangers, just cool-sounding numbers, people all over the country.
I have some Sprint PCS telephone numbers of some of the higher-ranking officials at Sprint PCS.
Well, that's the kind of thing I'd like to have.
Not over the air, obviously, but if you could get that to me after the show, I'll have a field day finding out how much they owe.
And as long as people, you know, are made aware of this, I think it's a lot happier and healthier for everybody.
But, you know, to have a feature like that and not tell people that, hey, there's no verification whatsoever.
We went through this with 9X a couple of years ago, and, you know, we thought maybe they might have learned.
But apparently they don't listen.
I think my favorite system was the original MCI friends and family system that allowed you to check not only the account balance and things like that,
but the relationships, like brother-in-law, that sort of thing, of what people they had in their circle of family and friends.
That was hilarious.
That was horrible.
And it's, you know, we have new services, new features, new technologies, but the same old stupidity of people running them and just not getting it right.
So I'd like to hear, I'm sure in a week this feature will no longer exist.
At least I sure hope so.
Oh, you're pretty positive.
Well, it took that long for MCI to get rid of theirs, and 9X didn't take too much longer to get rid of, you know, their bill verification service that allowed anybody to check up on you.
So I guess, you know, a lot of people right now are going to check on everybody they know and perhaps a few people they don't know, and then they'll complain about it.
And then it'll go away.
We'll see.
But again, the number for Sprint is 1-888-211-4727.
That's Sprint PCS.
You got to do that trick with the slamming door, obviously.
I don't know what that's all about, but if you have a Sprint phone to start to, we'll take you directly there.
Here's something else you could do.
You could just call Sprint PCS numbers at random knowing, you know, the exchanges in my area.
It's the 215-432 exchange, but I'm sure there's, you know, you have your own exchanges up there.
Just call numbers at random, and with luck you'll actually don't even call the numbers.
Call the Sprint PCS service number, and after the slamming door hit the 1, then enter random numbers, get account balances,
then call those actual Sprint PCS phone numbers and tell the person or leave them a voicemail saying,
you know, it was so easy to check your personal financial information by doing this.
I think you should call Sprint PCS and complain.
Well, you know, what I did, what I did today, I called somebody, you know, I checked my friend's balance,
and I called them today.
In my voice, they recognized me saying, hello, it's Emmanuel from Sprint PCS.
I see you still owe $142.
When can we expect payment on that?
They were kind of confused, to say the least, and it's a fun gag, I guess, to play on your friends.
Or enemies, too, for that matter.
All right, so that's enough of Sprint PCS for now.
Of course, we have other things to talk about.
In fact, when we get back, we're going to update people on exactly what happened
at the first micro-broadcasting convention on the East Coast.
This is Off the Hook.
Stay tuned.
I never thought I'd be so cruel
And now I had to bring nearly every room
Just to survive
I need to get by
I get up in the morning, I go to town
There's nothing there, so I just hang around
Time passes by
But I still have to try
Stand up for what you want
Stand up for all your needs
If you make your mind up
Then you will succeed
Stand up for what you want
Stand up for all your needs
If you make your mind up
Then you will succeed
I've been living here from day to day
Now I find out it's the only way
Where did I go wrong
My life carries on
Yeah, yeah
So now what's left for me to do
I can't see no other way through
I don't want to steal
Just to get my next meal
Stand up for what you want
Stand up for all your needs
If you make your mind up
Then you will succeed
Stand up for what you want
Stand up for all your needs
If you make your mind up
Then you will succeed
I don't think we could have
a more apropos sentiment
than what took place
this past weekend in Philadelphia
at the micro-broadcasting convention
standing up for what you want
and believe in
A lot of people
How many people do you think
showed up, Ernie?
150 to 200 people
That's a lot of people
to come to something like that
And what I learned over this weekend
as far as the broadcasting part of this
is that this is real
This is happening
This is something that's taking place
not just in New York
not just in Philadelphia
not just in Berkeley
all throughout the nation
Every city seems to have
at least one micro-broadcasting station
People going
taking back the airwaves
and challenging
what has happened to them
Some cities like, say, San Diego
I've heard that
12 out of 13 stations
there are owned
by the same company
You know, you have
you have the morning crews
of these, you know
these stupid morning DJ people
that, you know
say obnoxious things
on the radio
They compete with each other
and they're passing each other
in the hallway
You know, the same
the stations that allegedly
are competing with each other
really are part of
the same building
And it's sick
You know, it's a horrible thing
that's happened to radio
There's no competition anymore
It's all this homogenous crap
that you just, you know
hear from city to city
the same songs
the same sentiments
and people have finally
finally had enough of this
A lot of it is because
of the Telecommunications Act
of 1996
which allowed
megacorporations
to own multiple stations
and newspapers
and all media outlets
cable TV companies
cable channels
So you have, you know
every form of expression
being controlled
by one entity
Right now you have
you still hear me okay?
I hear you fine
I'm going down
a metal stairwell
Oh, okay
You have over
You are sounding
a little Darth Vader-ish there
Yeah
Half of all radio
are
Half of all radio stations
Over half
In other words
most of all radio stations
Yes
are owned by
ten corporations now
Uh-huh
Owned by one of ten corporations
Yep
That is
that is really
sad to hear that
I mean WBAI
is an exception
a very rare exception
You don't have stations
like this in other cities
You have some
non-commercial stations
in some places
but unfortunately
those are being corrupted too
by interest
different interests
you know
multi-corporate
megacorporation interests
and the community stations
are just vanishing
left and right
you know
they can't afford
to operate
and their signals
just are
kind of
degrading
because all these
other stations
are popping up
next to them
with you know
religion
and NPR
and all the people
who have money
that are just
kind of
stepping on them
The FCC
is selling out
Well the FCC
I mean
basically on Friday
there was an FCC
spokesperson there
Not just a spokesperson
Emanuel
Right
This was the chief
from Washington D.C.
the chief of compliance
and enforcement
for the Federal
Communications Commission
the self-described
top cop
of the FCC
came to our conference
to address
what one NPR
affiliate here
referred to
yesterday morning
as a hostile crowd
Well I don't know
what he expected
of course the crowd
is going to be hostile
these are people
that you know
are operating
radio stations
that he wants
to shut down
and that he has
vowed to shut down
so of course
they're going to be
rather hostile
towards this person
that has openly
expressed hostility
towards them
Shut down
shut down
by any means
necessary
I think
I think it was
you know
an important thing
he showed
a lot of courage
to be there
in front of a hostile
crowd
to express
what he believed in
but I hope
it was not lost
on him
that all these people
by operating
their radio stations
are showing
the same kind
of courage
by standing up
to the FCC
by standing up
to these mega
corporations
and their lock
on the FM
radio dial
but I'll tell you
you know
when I first got there
it seemed
you know
I'm sure a lot
of people get
this impression
whenever you go
to a gathering
like this
everybody seemed
to be totally
out of their heads
crazy
insane
misfits of society
and as you stay
for the entire weekend
and talk to these people
learn more about them
see where they're coming from
they become
the sanest people
in the world
I mean have you
gone through things
like that?
Sure
that's happened to me
in the hacking community
as well
Oh god yeah
and the sad thing is
when you see people
in the hacking community
sort of passing judgment
on other people
in other communities
that you know
may seem a little strange
or abnormal
the thing is
we're all strange
and abnormal
as soon as you
you know
fit in
you start to fade out
so these
misfits of society
are actually the ones
that are doing things
that are getting things done
standing up to
these rules
that we've all
just sort of
accepted
without question
I mean where is it
written that
you know
Westinghouse
and Capital City
and Disney
and you know
all these
military contractors
have the right
to have these
50,000 watt stations
every place
where there's virtually
no public input
whatsoever
you don't have any say
in what music is played
you don't have any say
in what kinds of shows
are put on
what kind of music
is put on
what kind of discussion
there is
if there's any discussion
at all
you have no say
whatsoever
it's hardly freedom
someone we had dinner
with Saturday night
or Friday night
I guess it was
one of those nights
it told us
that in one market
some city
I can't recall
San Diego
San Diego
all about the 13 stations
owned by the same people
exactly
and that's
pretty sad
that's not diversity
that's pretty depressing
yeah well
I mean they compete
against each other
but they just happen
to be owned
by the same entity
yeah
you explain that to me
I don't get it
so yes
there are a lot of things
that will be happening
with micro broadcasting
what do you think
came out of the conference
was there
a renewed sense of spirit
was there anything concrete
I think a lot of stations
a lot of people
who were involved
with various stations
across the country
who came
were really uplifted
to find out
that other people
in other areas
who had also gone
through the same
trials and tribulations
getting their own stations
on the air
have been going through
the same sort of stuff
technical problems
problems like how to put together
a democratic station organization
all these sorts of things
that really felt good
to associate with people
that you could identify with
who'd also gone through
the same things
in their own towns
and cities
and of course
we could all rally around
our universal opinion
that the FCC
was being unfair
it wasn't just
the chief
the top cop
at the FCC
that came to address
this Friday night
it was
the head
of the Pennsylvania ACLU
Stephen Presser
who vowed to defend
one of the Philadelphia pirates
Radio Mutiny
who
there's several friends
that I know
and vowed to defend them
in any legal action
that the FCC
would intend to take
against Radio Mutiny
so
it's going to be
an interesting battle
if they want to take
Radio Mutiny off the air
they're going to go
into a protracted
federal court battle
with the ACLU
it's going to be
kind of like the CDA case
I got to see
Radio Mutiny actually
I went down there
and it operates
you know
in just a house
a lot of pirate stations do
now is it true
I heard the sign off
that night
on Radio Mutiny
and I heard someone
humming
the Star Spangled Banner
well it's possible
that might have happened
yes
you don't know
what you're going to hear
on a radio station
like that
you think WBAI
is unpredictable
I was just curious
if you were one of those
people who was humming
the Star Spangled Banner
at sign off
I can't hum
worth a lick
it's you know
it's basically
I can't verify
one way or another
but let's move on
to something else
and say that
this month coming up
there will be
all kinds of
things going on
with micro-broadcasting
in different cities
a lot of stations
will be coming back
that have
April 15th
do we want to give out
an exact date
well April 15th
is a traditional
popular protest day
because it's
fax day
it's a day you have
to fork over
all your hard-earned
money to the
federal government
that money that
they haven't stolen
from you already
through withholding
during the rest of the year
so I know that
Steel List Radio
in New York
has announced
that they will be
going back in the air
April 15th
and so will
several other stations
as well
I wasn't sure
that was a public
announcement
but
they announced it
publicly at the conference
it is now I guess
there were a couple
hundred people there
okay
so yeah
they'll be coming
back on the air
and other stations
other states
and cities
will be as well
and I think
you're going to see
a lot more people
doing this
a lot more people
saying hey
you know
we can run a station
too
this is a need
that's not being filled
and I think
that's the most
important thing
is to
if you decide
to do something
like this
go for something
that isn't being
done already
you know
there's no point
in having the same
thing just being
dredged up
all over again
and having duplication
of something
that you know
why would somebody
listen to a pirate
station that's playing
commercial music
doesn't make any sense
exactly
it's one thing
not just music
but there's a lot
of local programming
and Radio Mutiny
in Philadelphia
there's an incredibly
wide range
of programming
interview programs
magazine shows
public health
oriented shows
all kinds of things
you're just simply
not going to hear
on any kind
of radio station
commercial
or PBS
anything like that
right
and there's also
the issue
of censorship
and indecency
which is something
that commercial radio
does not address
stations like WBAI
can't address
we were the ones
that started the whole
thing with the
seven dirty words
of George Carlin
and it's
something that
does need to be
addressed
and I think
the micro broadcasting
that's taking place
in this country
is the perfect forum
to finally challenge
the nonsense
that's going on
where you have to
censor virtually
every song
you put onto
the radio
and not talk
about certain
subjects
and all kinds
of other things
because you don't
want to offend
the most conservative
people in the country
well you know
there's dials
there's dials
there's switches
there's all kinds
of things you can do
if it offends you
just move on
to someplace else
that doesn't offend you
that's how we live
our lives
that's how you have
to live your life
anyway what I'd like
to do is
just give out the
address for a magazine
that I came across
while I was down there
because people need
to know what's going
on in this
movement
and I think
that's probably
the best way
to do it
is to read
a common thing
Hobby Broadcasting
is a magazine
that just started
coming out
and if you write
to them
at Hobby Broadcasting
Care of Cabinet
Communications
Post Office Box
642
Mont Alto
Pennsylvania
17237
ask them for
a subscription
information
I'm sure
I don't know
if it shows up
on newsstands
any place
but
you can certainly
ask for a subscription
or a sample copy
or something like that
and say you heard it
here on
Off the Hook
and maybe that'll
mean something
I don't know
if it will
we're going to
take some phone calls
212-279-3400
people have anything
to say about
this topic
or other topics
that we've covered
tonight or haven't
covered tonight
feel free to
give us a call
we are broadcast
at 99.5 FM
in New York City
also over the internet
throughout the world
and usually we get
a couple hundred
people every week
listening in various
parts of the planet
so we never know
who's going to be
out there
let's take our
first phone call
212-279-3400
and good evening
it's you
you're on the air
yeah hi Emmanuel
how are you
I'm pretty good
how are you
where are you
calling from
actually I'm calling
from the big
New York City
New York City
well the signal
is really getting
out tonight
yeah I have
two questions
for you
go ahead
first one is
where's Fiber
these days
Fiber is
he's out there
someplace
oh yeah
that's all I know
oh okay
alright second question
is there such a thing
as a legal
free local
phone call
in New York
a legal free
local phone call
well what is it
you want to do
you want to just
call somebody
and not pay any money
well basically
I just want to make
like local calls
from my apartment
like for free
well where
what area code
are you in
212
and you just want
to call
on 212 area code
yeah
well there's all
kinds of plans
Bell Atlantic has
and I believe
you can get
well there's obviously
how long have you
had your phone
line for
like a couple
months
I asked them
though
and they like
said that
there wasn't
a plan
well you won't
qualify for
unlimited regional
but it doesn't
matter because
you can get
I believe it's
flat rate that
you pay a certain
amount
and I'm not sure
if they actually
offer that in New York
City to be honest
I know they offer it
on Long Island
where you can
pay a certain
amount and call a
region as many
times as you want
I do know you have
untimed service
in New York
where you don't
have to pay
per minute
but you may not
have where you
don't pay for
every call
someone who is
more familiar with
the actual billing
in New York City
perhaps correct me
on this
but there are
there are certain
plans I know
there's other
companies too
that you can
you can subscribe
to you know
like MCS
or other
companies that
are popping up
almost every day
if you look at
the beginning
of your phone
book you'll see
them there's
bound to be
something that
offers you
unlimited local
dialing it's
not something
unusual it happens
all over the
country so if
it's not in New
York it should be
and it probably
will be really
soon
just keep asking
around and if
we hear something
here of course
we'll report it
okay thanks
thanks for calling
212-279-3400
good evening
you're on the air
yeah hi Armand
you're on the air
right now
yeah hi good evening
I'm calling you
from New York City
I live in New
Jersey I told you
a while ago
my water company
wants to use
our private phone
lines to read
the meters
no public
hearings no
nothing
I even put an
ad in the
local newspaper
about it
saying in the
least they should
have it manually
connectable so we
could just plug it
in at a
designated day
for instance
when they pick
up garbage
maybe once a
week or maybe
even twice a
month can I
force the issue
in your opinion
because one of
your guests was
talking about
they have to ask
permission to mess
with your phone
line well that's
to actually put
something on your
line I mean it's
a done deal they're
already in mailers
to the homes even
though they haven't
hit our house yet
here it is they
show a picture of
it and even though
there's only like
22,000 people in
our community they're
giving the rap that
they could tap
into the phone
like you know
anytime they want
they're even saying
oh we'll be doing
it perhaps once or
twice a week in other
words it isn't just
to read a bill it's
going to be like an
ongoing thing and
would you know do we
have rights to demand
public here's what I'm
like I'm not clear
about this how do
they know your phone
number they don't
know my phone number
they're going to come
into our house and
just literally go to
our phone lines and
put a cord from them
to the new water
meter they're going
to just tap into
our phones physically
they're going to go
into our houses and
put a doohickey from
our phone lines to a
water meter in the
basement I see so they
don't actually have to
call your number they
just oh yes they're
going to call the
number okay that's
what I'm confused
about how do they get
the number knowing how
to you know how do
they know what number
to call I am well if
they're using the phone
lines they have to have
a deal with the phone
company I guess Bernie do
you know anything about
this well if they're
going to be at the
side of the building
connecting a this is
Ridgewood New Jersey
you're in an apartment
building or something
hello yeah we know
it's Ridgewood let
Bernie speak go ahead
if they're on the
side of a building
with a lot of people
like a lot of tenants
in it they're going to
have to know what your
phone number is so
they can make sure
they're connecting it
to the right line now
they could connect
something to you to a
phone line and dial in
an ANAC number that
would read their phone
number back or something
like that but this
whole thing makes me
pretty uncomfortable I
would I would just
simply disconnect the
thing and and be
once a month
reconnected for five
minutes or whatever I
don't know whether the
thing calls out or
does it answer a call
my question is simpler
than that can we
legally go to some
commission about it I
guess I'll hang up
okay well that's really
smart very frustrated I
guess I was gonna ask
him what his concern
was but we'll never
hear his concern now
because he hung up
okay well I don't know
I would imagine you can
go to to all the
hearings you want and
simply make it an
issue and I'm sure
they will come up with
a plan for people who
don't want to be part
of this you know you
can't really impose new
things on people without
you know expecting them
to react in some way
and having some sort of
a plan for people who
don't want this you know
there's a plan for
people who don't want
caller ID who don't
want their number being
sent across if the phone
company had it their
way everybody's number
would be sent across at
all times and then you
know caller ID would
actually be a service
that you know would be
worth more but people
raise questions about
privacy issues so they
change the rules any
recording device and
this is a recording
device you record the
meter readings that
connect it to a phone
line it wouldn't be too
hard for somebody to
make something that
looked like a a water
company is it water
company water company
recording device put that
on the phone line and
have that instead record
all the phone numbers
that you dial or record
your conversations or
whatever right the pen
register type of thing
just you know I just
I'm very disturbed by
the idea of anybody
other than me connecting
anything to my phone
line of course that's
why I don't use a phone
line I use a wireless
phone but it's I think
it's a bit more secure
than on a wired line at
least nobody's gonna be
on the side of my house
hooking anything up to
it well it's pretty funny
because a couple of years
ago it was the exact
opposite a cellular phone
was something that you
know everything is
broadcast you can just
simply listen to
people's conversations
which you can still do
quite a bit a lot of
people still use regular
analog cells and even
though it's illegal you
can just turn on a radio
and listen to them so
it's pretty funny we
have this thing that
someone sent in to us
user instructions for
the Centex ovation
system now this we were
talking about similar
things a couple of
weeks ago as far as
buildings where people
are allowed entry by
telephone now here's
here are the exact
instructions on how
this works your building
has been equipped with
a Centex ovation
system the following
steps are involved in
using the visitor entry
capability of the
ovation system number
one the ovation system
uses your existing phone
lines to let you talk
to visitors and allow
them access to your
building if you so
desire a visitor is
instructed to find your
directory code and enter
your code on the keypad
the system then connects
itself to your telephone
line and rings your
telephone I should point
out that when it does
this you can hear very
clearly either the DTMF or
the rotary pulse of your
phone number in the
street as it's connecting
you to to the person that
you're trying to to ring
number two upon answering
the telephone you will be
in a normal conversation
with the visitor be sure
to speak clearly and
strongly so the visitor
can hear you over any
noise at the door and
also anyone else in the
street can hear you if
you are on the telephone
when a visitor attempts to
contact you you will hear
two tones this is the call
waiting feature which we
have nothing to do with
dialing a two on your
telephone will place your
call on hold and connect
you to the visitor pretty
interesting you dial two and
all of a sudden you're
connected to somebody else
that's it sounds like
they've been they put in
some sort of you know
a centric type system into
these buildings all it is
is like an auto dialer
isn't it well the dialing a
two part is different you
know when you get call
waiting you don't dial two
you have to hit flash
hook I see what you're
saying yeah so this is
this is something new that
they put on everybody's
lines dialing a two again
will switch you back to the
normal telephone call
number three once you have
put the normal call on
hold and answer the
visitor call by pressing a
two you may take one of
two actions number one
dial a nine to open the
door and let the visitor
into the building number
two dial a two to switch
back to normal telephone
call that you have on
hold while connected to
the visitor 10 seconds
prior to the end of the
call you will begin to
hear a short tone each
second to signal you the
call is about to end
press the star key to hang
up without allowing entry
I'm not quite sure how
they know when the end of
the call is coming while
connected to the visitor 10
seconds prior to the end of
the call you'll begin to
hear a short tone each
second to signal you that
the call is about to end
probably a timeout and it
lets you know 10 seconds
before that I guess they
don't want people talking
for long periods of time on
these little intercom
things what if the what if
the visitor brings a
touchtone a portable
touchtone dialer with them
and plays that nine into
the mouthpiece of this phone
I imagine they they they
have been somewhat smart
enough to cut off you know
the mouthpiece so that they
can't do that but you have
a pretty wild imagination
well here's the thing when I
was in California a few
years ago we were playing
with things like this and
we weren't trying to get
into people's apartments
we were trying to make
phone calls on the things
because you know it plays
a dial tone but the DTMF
didn't seem to be loud
enough to break the
dial tone that's that's
that's the problem we ran
into how about how about
with an inductive coupler
around the around the
earpiece well I'm sure
other scientific methods
have been tried in other
cities and maybe those
people in charge of that
research can get back to
us let us know how they
how they fared continue
with these instructions if
you hang up your phone
during a visitor call after
putting an outside call on
hold your telephone will
ring when you pick up the
phone you will be
connected to the outside
call that was put on hold
if you hang up from an
outside call while a
visitor is waiting your
phone will ring and you
will be connected with the
visitor when you pick up
the phone regardless of
who is on hold the system
will automatically hang up
after three rings I feel
sorry for you know senior
citizens and people that
aren't really you know into
all this technology having to
deal with all this so what
was that horrible noise I'm
sitting on the street oh
okay well you know it's a
motorcycle whatever you're
into uh number four if you
dial the nine the ovation
system will unlock the door
for a preset period of time
and a tone will be heard on
the speaker and the person
will enter your building
that's uh pretty nice to know
that two years ago I lived
where at an apartment
building where there was an
entry guard system and I
used to delight in uh using
my uh then cellular phone uh
stand out front of the bill
actually I could do with a
cordless phone I did that
too uh calling the phone
number I found out what the
phone number was that the
answer guard system was
connected to that was
simply an auto dialer kind of
thing it did uh it did uh
run to a hardware thing to
your uh to the front door
when you hit a touchdown nine
or I think it was a five
there anyway anyway when the
UPS man or the phone or the
uh mailman or whoever would
come to the door who uh
they'd enter they'd enter a
special code that would just
let them in I never knew
what that code was but uh
they'd have to pick up the
phone and get a dial tone
and enter this code so I
would wait for them to
pick up the phone and as
soon as they picked up the
phone I would or see them
approaching the phone out
front I would call that
that number assigned to that
pair and uh they'd pick up
the phone and I could say
things to them it's like
you know come back later
we're not ready for you or
whatever and uh they got a
kick out of that um a
number of years ago you
know those those ATMs that
have the uh the phones that
you you pick up if you have
trouble well they're regular
phone lines and they dial
regular numbers and if you're
fortunate enough to find out
the phone number of that
phone line you can call into
it and usually they have the
bell disconnected so it's
ringing but nobody knows it's
ringing so then people would
pick up the phone and the
the number would dial because
it wouldn't check for a
dial tone in actuality though
it would be picking up the
incoming call that we were
making and at that point the
person would be connected to
someone they thought was the
bank and we used to uh this
was a number of years ago a long
time ago way past any statute of
limitations that that i know of
and we would just say something
like bank you know wouldn't even
give the name and then they ask
us a question and we just be
totally obnoxious to them saying
uh we we can't do that you know
we have better things to do than
help you and of course uh there
was a there was a surge in people
switching to different banks that
month but um i think you can still
do it uh to this day but of course
we've moved on to bigger and
better things let's uh take another
phone call 212-279-3400 good
evening you're on off the hook
yes hello how you doing yeah i
wanted to uh um tell you about
those intercoms that you were
talking about yes all right um the
code uh there's a code when you
press nine you hear like uh uh
uh several um touch tones uh-huh
okay and those those tones if you
could decode them you can actually
punch them on the keypad and it'll
open the door automatically those
tones are they heard by the person
in the street or the person in the
apartment no the person in the
apartment so they hear a string of
touch tones and when you press nine
you hear like a string of touch
tones like let's say about five to
six really six of them yeah and if
you decode those tones you can
actually go downstairs in the street
press the pound key to get the
dial tone and then punch in a code
in the door that you hear a loud
beep and the door would you know
open that's interesting that's
very interesting um actually i never
really um i got it i never knew
about the this if you press two the
two feature if it clicks it flashes
over right but um you may have a
different system yeah you see i'm
also i try to make phone calls out of
that as well but it doesn't work it
only because once you dial four
digits yeah it'll medically ring
someone's apartment yeah it's because
it's uh it's some sort of an internal
system there so that it probably won't
work for that reason but i'm more
concerned with the special code that
opens up the door that you know if
that gets out yeah uh all you have to
do really do you have a tape recorder
just record those tones yeah i try to
i tried to record i actually i'm going
to try that tonight to see if i could
decode those tones i know it's about
five to six yeah and i know it starts
with uh i think a three mine starts with
a three i think they all have different
ones it's possible it might even be
some silver box tones in there which
would be a b c d what you should do
record those call up the 2600 voice
bbs and there's a feature there that
allows you to uh decode the tone
decode touch tones including a b c and
d oh i didn't know that yeah so that
way if if those tones are in there
you'll know what they are and get back
to us let us know what they are you
know if if people can enter a building
just by entering a code that's
something that needs to be known
yeah all right all right thanks for
calling we are out of time already boy
time goes by fast uh bernie um yeah
anything anything you need to uh leave
us with i just wanted to uh thank the
federal communications commission's uh
top compliance and enforcement officer
for coming to the east coast micro
broadcasting conference and for
unwittingly uh broadcasting his uh his
own message over a pirate radio station
he vowed to shut down yeah let's give
some credit to pork chop our real audio
person for actually managing to figure
this one out where what was it that
happening in we took well we the uh
the the audio from the uh from the
friday night debate with the fcc was
actually transmitted by sprint pcs to uh
to a phone number which is then forwarded
to a secret number at the radio mutiny
which was then fed into a phone patch
then out through the air at 91.3
megahertz picked up by someone else who
fed that audio into their computer
digitized it sent it up to pork chop
who then ran it out via real audio to
the world where we believe it was picked
up by a shortwave radio pirate in the
midwest and broadcast on 69 55 kilohertz
so the fcc got uh quite a lot of uh quite a
lot of broadcast time over pirate radio
stations that night uh which i imagine
didn't make them too happy that they
were breaking a law well it's good to
reach a lot of people and uh they they
certainly reach a lot of people over
this weekend hopefully we'll be updating
folks with what happens in the weeks
ahead bernie thanks very much for being
with us and uh thanks again to all those
people who showed up over the weekend in
philadelphia so emmanuel goldstein will be
back again with another edition of off the
hook next week till then good night
the telephone keeps ringing so i ripped it
off the wall i cut myself while shaving
now i can't make a cost it couldn't get
much worse but if they could they would
be the best expect the worst i hope that's
understood
but
well
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And good evening.
The time is 9.01 and 30 seconds.
You're listening to WBAI's Arab Voices Crescent Rising, heard every Tuesday from 9 to 10 here
on WBAI 99.5 FM.
I'm your host, Barbara Nimri Aziz, inviting you to relax for the next hour and join us today
when we celebrate the Hajj.
We say Eid Mubarak to all our Muslim community members here and abroad all over the world.
Muslims are celebrating the great Eid al-Adha.
And our program is going to be precisely about Eid.
First, an interview with author Michael Wolff, and then a segment produced by our own Ibrahim
Gonzalez.
So relax and stay tuned.