You're absolutely right, Mike. You have nothing to be sorry about. It was a situation that
you could not prevent. I'm sitting here looking at a, well, what is in essence an in-house
memo that says, letting all the producers at WBAI know of the possibilities of, you
know, technical difficulties happening the first week as we move into our new quarters
here at 120 Wall. Some have taken it to heart, some have not, and we shall move on. With
the rest of the programming, it is 7.58. Coming up in two minutes, we'll be off the
hook with Emanuel Goldstein. Let's see how Goldstein deals with this and other things.
Coming up next over WBAI.
Ten years ago, a finger-snapping, foot-stomping musical lit up the theater scene, and now
Smoke on the Mountain is returning in a new production, and their first performance at
the Lamb's Theater will be a benefit for listener-sponsored WBAI on Friday night, June 5th. Smoke on the
Mountain, hailed by Clive Barnes and the Post as a totally beguiling theatrical entertainment,
and which the New Yorker called perfectly delightful. Among the many wonderful things
about Smoke on the Mountain is that you can bring the kids or your grandparents for a
joyous evening. Join your friends from WBAI at this special performance of Smoke on the
Mountain, Friday, June 5th, curtain time, 8 o'clock, tickets $35 a pair, and you can
make reservations by calling area code 212-575-0263. It's Smoke on the Mountain at the Lamb's Theater.
Reservations 575-0263.
Fire in my heart.
Fire in my heart.
If you believe you have been the victim of police misconduct or brutality, or a witness
to either, New York City Police Watch wants to hear from you. The Police Watch has established
a hotline and documentation system so that New Yorkers have access to an independent,
community-based organization for reporting police abuse. When you call the hotline, a
trained staff person or volunteer will advise you of your rights in police encounters, suggest
possible remedies, and if the incident merits legal action, will refer you to a qualified
panel attorney. You can call the New York City Police Watch hotline at 212-614-6454.
That number again is 614-6454. This has been a public service announcement by WBAI on behalf
of the New York City Police Watch.
And you're listening to radio station WBAI where you must bear with us because we just
moved studios and we're in a totally different part of town and we don't know where we are.
That's the first problem right there. The second problem is that we only have, see these
things called carts, cart machines are the magic of radio. That's how you play commercials
except we don't do that. We play program promos much like the one you just heard. And
usually what the DJ or the engineer does is hit a button that smoothly segues you from
one to the other. However, because of our move, we only have one. And that means that
you can't make it so smooth. You have to sort of fill it with babble in between. And the
other part about all this is that it's on the other side of the room. So you have to
sort of take a little trip to change them. So bear with me a moment while I put in the
off the hook theme. Almost done. Here we go. It's time for off the hook.
The telephone keeps ringing. So I ripped it off the wall. I cut myself while shaving.
Now I can't make a cut. It couldn't get much worse. But if they could, they would.
I hope that's understood.
I hope that's understood.
Now, the end is near. And so it is, the final curtain. You can't, I know you will.
I'll still make haste.
2-1-2. 2-7-9. 3-4-100.
How sad, isn't it? That's the sound that you get now if you call our telephone number.
It will never be answered again. No, it's a phone number which I've given out ever since
I started doing shows here in WBAI. It now just rings and rings and rings.
We have a new number, but we're not going to tell anybody what it is because we kind of like it this way.
Nobody knows where we are. There's only three people in the whole station.
It took me all day to find the place, but we know that's going to change.
That's right. Off the hook is on the air.
Oh, that's, that's, that's not a, that's not a Bell Atlantic tone.
You know what could have happened? That could be our internal phone system kicking in
saying, hey, there wasn't a call connected and could very well be.
Anyway, oh, that's more like it. Although that's a little bit too fast.
All right. Well, now we have moved. We're downtown now.
We're actually on Wall Street, which I find incredible. It's very convenient.
Yeah, if we, if we want to go around and protest something and say something is unjust,
we just have to stick our heads out the window and we can look at all the injustice lying right out there.
Don't have to go very far. Don't have to take any more limousines downtown to, you know, to, to check things out.
No more, no more of that. Okay. We have some updated information now.
Obviously, as we said, we've, we've changed our phone number and we haven't yet told anybody who it is.
We told anybody what it is. A couple of words of, of information.
We were, when we were uptown, I believe we were using a 5ESS switch.
Let's just confirm that. Have a dial tone, please.
That's our dial tone? What a strange tone. Okay. There we go.
By dialing the exchange plus 9-9-0-1, you usually find out what the, what the switch is.
And we're doing this for a reason. There's a very interesting reason for this.
You have reached the verification number at West 36th Street, DS1, 5ESS, area code 212.
Okay. There you go. Now, that was our old switch.
You have reached the verification number at West 36th Street, DS1, 5ESS, area code 212.
Okay. We were on a 5ESS up there in Midtown.
But now, if we dial our new number, which I'm not going to play yet, just to add to the suspense, check out what happens now.
Thank you for calling TCG.
You have reached the 5ESS entity located at 225 Liberty Street in the 212 NPA.
Any condition present concerning the completion of this call should be reported to TCG's Network Management Center
on 718-983-2171.
Now, isn't that interesting? We're not even using Bell Atlantic anymore.
Okay. You can go away.
We're not using Bell Atlantic. We're using a company called TCG.
And this is probably the first time anybody on this station has said that over the year.
We are not using Bell Atlantic. No more Bell Atlantic. TCG.
I know nothing about them. I don't know if they're any better than Bell Atlantic or worse or whatnot.
But there is an interesting possibility here.
Over the years, we've noticed that first when 9X took over and then when Bell Atlantic took over from 9X,
there was an annoying problem when callers would call in and after, say, about, I don't know, three minutes or so,
you'd get a little fast busy or you'd be disconnected because we didn't pick up fast enough
because they weren't making any money off of the circuit, so they disconnected you.
Well, it might be an idea to try this with the new phone number, which I'm going to give out now.
And we're not going to pick it up anytime soon, probably not until about the half hour.
But it might be an interesting opportunity to experiment with this.
And I should stress that if you call in from out of state, it almost certainly won't work
because long-distance companies always cut in and cut you off.
But locally, if you're in the 212 area code or actually any place within Bell Atlantic New York area,
you might be able to stay on for longer.
So give us a call at our new phone number.
Ready? Are you ready? Here we go.
Area code 212.
Yeah, we didn't fall into the 646 trap. Not yet, anyway.
Oh, that was a close call. If we had moved next month, I think we would have gotten that.
212. 2-0-9-2-9-0-0.
Yeah, it's a dyslexic nightmare, I know.
But 2-0-9-2-9-0-0 is our new phone number.
That is the number we'll be saying for the ages from now on.
And look at that phone lighting up. My goodness.
Well, the number certainly works, doesn't it?
Okay, well, we have a new phone number now.
This is our first show using it.
So let's see if we can figure out something cool to spell with it.
We've got the 2, which could be A, B, or C.
And the 0 is... I think you can spell the 0, right?
Okay, so let's just skip that and go to the 9, which is W, X, and Y.
So we have a 2 and a 9, and then another 2 and a 9, and then two more 0s.
Oh, dear.
We only have four letters we can possibly spell.
That is something.
Okay, well, I guess we can't really spell too much there.
2-9-2-9.
It spells bye-bye. That's kind of cool.
Okay, well, this is my first time looking at it, too,
so we're bound to have some weirdness there.
All right.
That is our new number.
2-1-2-2-0-9-2-9-100.
The new WBAI Studios.
And it's just in the nick of time, too.
Because we have all kinds of fun things we're going to be doing in future shows.
Now, this particular show, we've made a few discoveries,
and we have a few informational points,
and we're going to do this before we start making phone calls.
Or taking phone calls, actually.
And, well, let's first correct something we said last week
concerning the new charges that are appearing on various phone bills.
Actually, on every phone bill.
Not only every phone bill in New York, every phone bill in the nation.
Yeah, you're being charged for all kinds of things now.
And I mistakenly said something.
I didn't realize it because I didn't find it on my bill myself,
that you could get away from this charge
if you didn't have multiple lines in your name.
It turns out they charge you for every single line you have.
Universal excess charge.
And that's not all. There's more coming.
So what we're going to do is we're going to call an 800 number.
That's going to explain it to us,
because we're too dumb to figure it out ourselves.
And if you have any questions, I guess we can take them just a little bit later.
Okay, we have our strange dial tone there.
Let's call the 800 number.
AT&T.
Thank you for calling the AT&T Information Line.
There are two items in the main menu.
To learn about the universal connectivity charge, press 1.
The carrier line charge, press 2.
Okay, we're going to, sorry about that, we're going to start with the second one.
We hope this explanation will help you see why the carrier line charge is on your bill.
The Federal Communications Commission has changed the way local phone companies
charge long-distance carriers like AT&T for connecting long-distance calls
to and from customers' residences.
AT&T and other long-distance companies must pay flat fees to the local phone companies
based on the number of residential telephone lines
that are subscribed to their long-distance service.
The purpose of this fee is to help local phone companies cover their costs
for connecting long-distance calls to and from your residence.
AT&T is recovering its costs through a monthly charge on each residential customer's bill.
This charge, which we call the carrier line charge,
is designed to recover the average per-customer fees
that local phone companies are charging AT&T for its residential customers.
This monthly charge will be 95 cents per account and will not be waived.
Thank you. We hope you now have a better understanding of this charge.
Yes, we hope you won't ask any more questions of us.
Let's hear about the other charge, which is coming in July.
To repeat this information, press 7.
To return to the main menu, press 9.
To speak with an AT&T...
To learn about the universe...
We hope that this explanation will help you see why the universal connectivity charge
will appear on your bill starting in July 1998.
The Federal Communications Commission is managing an enhanced universal service fund
that telecommunications companies, including long-distance carriers like AT&T, must contribute to.
This universal service fund will help provide affordable telecommunications services
for low-income customers, customers in rural areas,
and provide discounts on telecommunications services and Internet access
for eligible schools, libraries, and rural health care providers.
AT&T plans on recovering its contribution to this fund
through a monthly charge on each residential customer's bill.
This charge, which we call the universal connectivity charge,
will be based on a percentage of your AT&T bill.
Currently, this charge is 5% of your state-to-state and international calls,
and 1.8% of your in-state calls, where applicable.
The money collected from this charge directly supports the universal service fund
and will not be waived.
Thank you.
We hope you now have a better understanding...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we understand it, all right.
You know what's interesting about that?
They are required by the federal government to make a contribution
to low-income, you know, phone connections and Internet service,
and the reason that they're asked rather firmly by the federal government to do this
is because they're swimming in profits, because they're choking on money.
So, now, here's the interesting thing.
They're required to do this, and they recover, in quotes,
their contribution by making their customers pay for what it is that they're actually paying for.
You know, you get how it doesn't really work the way they say it's working?
They say these big companies have to pay this money,
but then the big companies charge little people to cover their costs.
So, actually, we're the ones paying.
AT&T's not paying anything.
They're not paying a thing.
They're simply charging us.
And you know what's interesting about the other charge, the first one,
the one that's already appearing on your phone bill?
95 cents if it's AT&T, 80 cents if it's Sprint.
Now, if this is, you know, representative of the charge that they're getting from the federal government,
why are there different charges for different companies?
It should be the same for everybody, right?
Maybe this thing can be waived to some degree.
You know, if you're a certain company, you charge less, and you get more customers that way.
I don't know.
It just seems a little weird, and it seems like there's all kinds of new charges showing up,
which I don't know if they were meant for us to be paying in the first place.
Very interesting.
Some news from the new Bell Atlantic edition of Extra,
which is the replacement to Hello, which was the monthly thing that you get in your phone bill.
New information about your Bell Atlantic account.
Listen to this.
As part of Bell Atlantic's commitment to focus first on you, the customer,
we want to continue providing you with products and services tailored to your particular needs.
You can help us keep that promise.
Like most businesses, Bell Atlantic communicates with its customers about products and offers
based on information found in their accounts.
Much of this information appears on your monthly phone bill.
Now, based on a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission,
Bell Atlantic, our affiliates and sales agents need...
The station's next to a disco, you know.
Shut the door. Okay.
Sales agents need your approval to use the information we have on your telephone service
and your billing records to tell you about the full range of Bell Atlantic products and services
and related products and services our sales agents may offer.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
Bell Atlantic has always, always protected the confidentiality of your telephone service information.
And we never share it with any other outside companies other than our authorized sales agents.
So the question I have right now is, how can I get a list of all of their authorized sales agents?
You know, you don't know who they are.
They could be all kinds of different people out there selling who knows what.
We don't know who they are.
But they're sharing information with these quote-unquote authorized sales agents.
So when they call, you should keep that in mind,
that you can refuse the right for your information to be given to these authorized sales agents.
And they say in the near future we'll be asking you for your approval to access your account information
so that we can tell you about products and offers that you may find attractive.
This could happen as part of a conversation between you and one of our representatives
or in written correspondence.
You may be subpoenaed to answer these questions.
But, you know, I suggest that people keep their privacy and maybe listen to the radio
and find out about the new products and services that way and see if they're any good.
Here's another interesting thing.
Effective July 1st.
New York City customers using the Bell Atlantic access code 10698,
which is really not a Bell Atlantic access code.
It's not even a 9X access code.
It's a New York telephone access code because 10698, the 698 stands for NYT.
And it was a way of calling over to New Jersey and saving some money by prefixing it with that access code.
Well, that number is changing.
10698 is becoming 1010698.
We've been warning you about that for a couple of years.
And, again, that access code is for calls dialed from 212 and 718 to northern New Jersey,
counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, and Union.
And for those of you listening on the Internet,
I know you don't understand what any of that means, but it's important for people here in New York.
And that is, first and foremost, where we are.
We are definitely in New York.
And right now we're in the heart of the financial district.
And I just can't get over that.
You know, everybody was staring at us coming over.
Did you notice that?
A bunch of hackers coming over to a radio show.
All these corporate executives with their suits and ties and Mercedes Benzes and chauffeurs and things like that.
They just don't fit in.
I like it.
I like not fitting in.
I'm kind of used to it.
Well, Isaac, you're here.
And as soon as I figure out what microphone is best for you.
Three?
Okay.
Let's see if that matches with this.
You know, somebody put a piece of tape here so that I can't slide this up past this point.
So maybe that's as low as you can get.
It sounds rather silly.
So you're going to have to speak closer to the microphone.
Closer to the microphone?
Yeah.
Because it doesn't go up any higher.
It doesn't go up any higher unless I force it.
I don't know if I should do that.
So have it touch your mouth.
That's good.
Yeah, that works.
That's much better.
It's a very bad taste.
Yeah.
I'm sorry about that.
You just came back from Atlanta.
Yes.
I went down to Atlanta to attend a conference, E3, the Electronics Entertainment Expo.
A big gaming thing.
I don't know why I was there.
And you brought your Sprint PCS phone with you.
Oh, yes, I did.
No doubt, so that you could enjoy the convenience of staying in touch with your friends and loved ones
as you traveled throughout the southern part of this country of ours.
The United States, for those people outside the country.
Yes.
I had every intention of having people being able to reach me and myself to be able to reach anyone else.
However, intentions and reality seemed to conflict.
I was on my way down, and I went through Virginia.
And Virginia, I picked up roaming.
I don't exactly recall the name of the company, but I was roaming outside of the Sprint PCS area.
And then once I left Virginia, I got into North Carolina, and I noticed that my service died.
Well, you know, that's to be expected.
I mean, you go around upstate in fairly dead areas, and you don't have coverage.
That's okay.
Parts of Queens, too.
Oh, parts of Queens, Long Island, like my house.
But anyway, so I'm going through North Carolina.
I'm figuring, oh, it'll probably pick up outside some of the larger cities.
So I'm going through.
About 200 miles later, I hit the South Carolina border.
And, oh, that's odd.
I guess North Carolina just doesn't have any cities large enough for Sprint to cover.
You've got to be careful in the Carolinas when you're traveling.
That's the best advice I can give anybody.
Just be careful.
Well, I'm sitting here in my red car with my New York plates that just kind of scream, pull me over.
Yeah, that's not a good idea.
So I'm taking the plates off.
Well, that's much better.
That is, actually.
Okay.
You know there's no emission control standard in South Carolina?
Really?
You don't have to get your car inspected.
Really?
That's what I heard.
That's what I heard.
Oh, wow.
Then I guess I could be legal.
Anyway.
So tell us quickly.
Oh, yes.
I'm going through South Carolina.
There's also no coverage.
And 100 miles later, I get to Georgia.
And I find this odd.
I'm starting to find this odd.
And now I'm in Georgia.
And I go about 50 miles, and I'm kind of outside the Atlanta area.
And I'm watching my phone and I'm waiting for it to click on.
And I finally get just on the outside of Atlanta.
And I'm beginning to think, hmm, this is odd.
Maybe they have one antenna in the middle of the city.
I still have hope at this point.
So now I'm in downtown Atlanta.
I'm out of the car.
I'm unpacked.
I'm in the hotel.
And I still have no coverage.
No coverage.
No coverage whatsoever.
Not even roaming.
And I find this disturbing, to say the least.
So I call Sprint on their happy 800 number.
And I finally get to a customer advocate.
And I mention the fact that I don't have service here in Atlanta.
And I'm placed on hold.
And a couple of moments later, the customer advocate returns and says,
That's right.
We don't have any coverage in Atlanta.
And I thanked her very politely for the amazing amount of information she just supplied me.
And I asked about roaming contracts.
And it turns out that Sprint is not roaming with anyone in Atlanta.
So this was a problem.
So I'm walking through the streets, and I find BellSouth Mobile.
And I walk in there, and I figure, well, maybe I could rent a phone or something.
So I walk into BellSouth Mobile.
They don't rent phones.
They'll sell you a phone for $100 with the $30 activation fee.
And then I can prepay 15 minutes for $30.
Did you have to sign a contract?
I actually did not have to sign a contract.
I would not have.
It was prepaid.
I had to hand over my life savings and the connectivity for three days.
But you just wanted to have your Sprint phone working.
I wanted to have my Sprint phone working, but I needed some kind of connectivity.
So I'm kind of turning that down.
And one of the gentlemen at the BellSouth Mobile place mentions that,
You know, RadioShack down the street activates Powertel phones.
That's also a digital network.
They might be able to activate your phone on the Powertel network.
I go, Oh, this is interesting.
So now I walk down to the RadioShack.
I have my 2600 cap on, and the proprietor of the store mentions,
Oh, you are a hacker?
In a very strange mix of southern dialect and some unknown.
And I kind of, you know, removed that question from the table.
And I was asking about Powertel.
And he just gives me the number for Powertel to call.
So I walk out to the corner phone booth, and I call the 800 number for Powertel.
And I'm talking to this very nice woman.
And she inquires about Sprint roaming.
And puts me on hold, comes back.
Well, Sprint doesn't roam with Powertel.
Oh, okay.
Well, is there any way I could activate my phone on the Powertel network?
Well, RadioShack would be able to do it.
Is your SIM compatible?
SIM? SIM? SIM?
That's very odd.
Yeah.
And I mentioned the name of the company here in New York I'm with, Sprint PCS.
Right.
A number of times.
And I did not know that Powertel was a GSM provider down south.
So after a little while, I finally got to the point where I explained to the kindly customer service rep.
But they don't call them advocates at Powertel.
No, they're opponents.
They're opponents.
And we finally decided, no, my phone would not work on a GSM network.
Though they do roam with OmniPoint.
So if you ever go down to Atlanta and you have your OmniPoint phone, you can roam with Powertel.
That might be interesting.
It's a big plus.
So she suggested that I contact AT&T.
Maybe AT&T has a PCS service down there.
So I'll call AT&T.
And it turns out that the person from AT&T mentions the fact that they're not going to be covering the Atlanta area or most of Georgia for some time.
They said something like the end of September, but AT&T translating to real time means a couple years.
So then I call Sprint back.
And I get a different customer advocate.
They really look out for you around there.
And they mentioned that, well, Sprint PCS will be covering the Atlanta area in December.
And should I choose to extend my stay to December?
A full seven, eight months.
Seven, eight months.
I would have coverage in Atlanta, which is a very positive thing.
Well, since you're standing here, I think you chose not to extend your stay.
I decided I kind of like living at home and having to be in New York.
So I was only down there three days.
And you missed the whole conference because you were spending the whole time on the phone.
On the phone trying to get connectivity.
That's really the most tragic part of the whole story, I think.
That's very true.
Is that you just went down there for no reason at all and came back up with all the poor.
It was a real waste of time.
I put so many miles on my car.
What is your conclusion?
My conclusion?
My conclusion is that you and Bernie have been right for a very long time.
I used to sit in that chair and say, oh, they're whining about Sprint PCS again.
And now I've had my own experience with the company directly as well as some others.
It was a very nice cast of cards.
You know, there's good and there's bad to any company, I guess.
And we've been focusing a lot on the bad of Sprint PCS.
And I think the main reason for that is because they've oversold so much.
Everybody's using them now and nobody can get through.
And there's all kinds of problems.
Those are in the covered areas.
In the covered areas, yeah.
People don't have that problem.
They're not getting covered.
So that's the main reason why we've been so critical of them.
That's true.
I broke my phone last week.
Really?
I was so frustrated and flustered by this thing.
You see, I've got the Samsung model, which is a real, in my opinion, and that's all it counts for.
It's my opinion.
It's a real piece of garbage.
It's the cheap phone that you buy at Radio Shack, you know.
But it's, you know, there's certain things about it.
And the thing that really gets me, you're talking on the phone, minding your own business, having a nice conversation.
You get voicemail, right?
Somehow you get voicemail.
You don't get a call waiting.
Somebody leaves it directly to your voicemail number or you don't answer the phone.
It beeps so loudly, it's like the phone is ringing in your ear to tell you you have voicemail.
You're talking on the phone and then it beeps to notify you of your voicemail.
Right.
It's a little gentle beep.
It's the ear-piercing shriek that normally comes from your pocket.
Exactly.
You can either turn it off totally, in which case you won't know if you got voicemail.
You'd have to look for the little flashing red light.
Or it shrieks at you.
Now, I didn't do this intentionally.
It was an instinct.
But when it happened, and when something like that happens, your instinct is just to hurl the thing away as quickly as possible.
It's like a grenade going off in your ear.
So I hurled the thing down on the floor.
And it was interesting because it's in a case.
It bounced.
It bounced.
It bounced onto a desk.
It was like an incredible sight.
Really?
Yeah.
But, unfortunately, when it landed, it had all kinds of weird black lines on the display.
Something had busted.
Oh.
Yeah.
That tends to happen when you bounce things.
It happens.
Well, actually, I've thrown that phone a few times because that's happened.
The same thing?
Yeah.
And I'll do it again, too.
Okay.
So it was busted, though.
It still worked.
The phone worked, but I couldn't read anything on it.
Maybe at some point you'll break the piezo so it won't do that anymore.
Well, in any event, I had a, what do you call it, one of those warranty things,
which I was sort of suckered into getting when I bought the phone.
But I've used it.
I've used it a lot.
And I went back today, actually, and they were very nice about it.
They gave me a new phone.
Which still has the shriek.
Well, yeah.
I'm still going to get deafened.
But the thing is, I'm happy with the service.
I don't like the product.
I'm sort of stuck with the product because I have this guarantee that whenever it breaks,
I get another one.
Ah.
Did you hear that?
Yeah, I heard that.
Did you hear that beep?
Somebody just left me voicemail.
And that's how loud it is in your ear.
In your ear while you're trying to talk to someone.
It's quite a ways away.
And yeah, that's something.
So that's the situation I went through with my phone.
Good and bad.
But I have a present for you.
You have a present for me?
I have something for you that I think you should do right now.
In fact, I'm going to ask you to leave the room after I tell you this.
Okay.
And do this.
All right?
I would like you to get on the phone to Sprint PCS and take advantage of this new thing they
just announced, which I think is really pretty cool.
What is this new thing?
This is part of their promotion for all these new customers.
But you as an existing customer can also use this.
They give you 500 minutes free weekend and night.
Really?
And it doesn't cost you anything.
They just add it to your account.
Even though I have my former package, my promotional package.
What package do you have?
I have the 400 minutes for $50.
Okay, so you will now have 900 minutes.
They'll just add 500 minutes of evening and weekend and it won't cost you anything.
On top of my other package?
On top of that.
Run into the other room.
Take a phone call.
I don't know what their 800 number is.
You're going to have to figure that out.
Well, I have that.
I called it a number of times.
And hopefully by the end of the show, you can come back in here and tell us that, yes,
you were able to add this onto your...
I've been sort of converting people.
It's like a religious crusade of mine.
Converting people saying, look, you don't have to complain anymore.
These bad times can turn into good times.
Of course, you'll have to keep using the phones to shriek in your ear.
That's true.
I don't know.
It might balance out.
So I'm going to go do that right now.
Okay, you go do that.
I'm also going to talk about OmniPoint.
OmniPoint has expanded their coverage to Florida and New England as well.
But here's something interesting.
Here's something very interesting.
They have a service.
A service that I just found out about.
That's right.
A service I just found out about that allows you to do something.
Do something kind of interesting.
Kind of sneaky.
Something we talked about a few weeks ago.
It was kind of a mystery to us.
We're going to solve the mystery right now by calling up an OmniPoint number.
Let's do that right now.
The problem is I'm trying to find a phone line here.
The phones are all busy.
If somebody could just hang up the phone for a second.
Let's see if we can...
No, that wasn't one.
How about over here?
There we go. Okay.
We're going to dial a phone number.
And we're going to leave a message.
And you're going to hear something kind of neat.
Okay.
I don't know what's going on there.
That should have gone through.
But obviously it didn't, so let's try again.
Okay.
Let's see if this one actually went through.
This could be our new phone system.
Which has been giving us all kinds of problems.
All right.
Maybe we don't have an outgoing line there.
That's also a possibility.
Let's go to this line, which I know worked before.
And hopefully we'll be able to get through.
Okay.
I think that worked.
Now listen carefully.
Yes, I'm calling my own phone.
I'm going to send this to voicemail now.
Yeah, leave a message.
Okay.
I'll do as you say, and I will leave a message.
And when I finish leaving my message, I will hit the pound sign.
If you are satisfied with your message, press pound.
To enter a number where you can be reached, press one.
To send this message...
That's what we're going to do.
We're going to enter a number where we can be reached.
Listen to this.
Please enter the area code and number, followed by pound.
Well, okay.
Let's enter something.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.
If this is correct, press pound.
If you are satisfied with your message, press pound.
Message sent.
Thank you for calling.
Goodbye.
Okay.
I don't know if you realize what we've just done.
But we've just done something that I've just gotten voicemail.
I've just gotten notified of my voicemail.
On my voicemail, it shows me that I just got a message from a telephone number of all zeros.
Which is supposedly impossible.
Okay, our call didn't go through for some reason, so let's try this again.
Okay, we have...
I don't know what that means.
We've confused the phone system.
Okay, let's try this one more time.
Okay, this should work this time.
Let's send that to voicemail.
Okay, this is the part where I turn the microphone down and make lots of noise so nobody can hear this.
Invalid entry.
Uh-oh, okay.
Please re-enter your password.
I guess I have to do a better job of that.
Let's try again.
You have eight messages.
One is new and seven are saved.
To listen to your messages, press one.
Okay, listen carefully.
New message.
Tuesday, 8.39 p.m.
Telephone number 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.
Okay, I'll do as you say and I will leave a message.
And when I finish leaving my message, I will hit the pound sign.
To erase this message, press seven.
To reply, press eight.
To save, press nine.
To skip to the next message, press pound.
Yes, friends, we have done what we thought was being done to us a few weeks ago.
Spoofed caller ID.
You can now send any phone number you want on the OmniPoint network and make it seem as if somebody got a call from that number.
Yes, I've been calling people from the White House, from the NSA, from all different agencies.
And you just enter a phone number and they think they got a call from that area.
It's so simple.
It's so simple.
It's so simple as to be almost unbelievable.
So that's the latest fun from OmniPoint.
And as you know, it's always a lot of fun to play with these new phone services.
Speaking of new phone services, and we're going to take some phone calls, too.
We don't mean to keep people waiting, but we have a lot to update people on.
212-209-2900.
I forgot what the phone number was.
Sprint made an announcement today that is another unbelievable thing.
Sprint Corporation unveiled a $2 billion network on Tuesday that the long-distance carrier will use to vault into local service.
And that will let home and business users make calls, send faxes.
You have to be able to send faxes, right?
And use the Internet at the same time, all on a single phone line.
Sprint, the nation's number three long-distance company, said it has rolled a host of new capabilities together into a single package that will provide virtually unlimited bandwidth.
A single phone line.
Virtually unlimited bandwidth.
Now, this is something.
Yeah, they got something here.
Sprint said web surfers will benefit from the capability codenamed, ready, Project Fast Brake.
Project Fast Brake.
Which it says will offer speeds up to 100 times faster than current modems.
And long-distance phone prices about 70% less than now.
100 times faster, 70% cheaper.
Sprint said the new service will be available first to businesses by the middle of next year.
And to consumers later in the 21st century.
Actually, in 1999, they say.
Will cut long-distance phone prices and eliminate the need for multiple phone lines.
This truly is the big bang that expands the universe of what telecommunications can do in our homes and businesses.
Well, of course, it's kind of biased because the person who said that is Sprint's chief executive officer and chairman, William T. Esri.
Meanwhile, Sprint said it will begin offering round-the-clock long-distance phone service at a rate of $0.10 a minute for users who pay a $4.95 user's fee or spend at least $30 a month.
That's an improvement from just $0.10 a minute in off-peak hours.
Rival AT&T Corporation offers $0.10 a minute but doesn't waive its fee.
MCI Communications charges $0.05 a minute on Sunday.
The new capability, according to Esri, will be the launching pad for the company's reach into local service.
The big telecom reform law of 1996 has failed so far to bring to reality wide competition in local service.
Analysts were skeptical about the new capability, particularly about how wide the virtually unlimited bandwidth really is.
I don't think this is anything groundbreaking, said one analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Why would an analyst need to be anonymous?
I mean, what is he afraid of? He's an analyst. He's supposed to analyze things.
This guy doesn't want to analyze because he's afraid of retributions?
What kind of retribution could Sprint give you?
What, are they going to cut off your dime a minute rate or something? Come on.
This is sad. This is sadder than anything I've read in a long time.
An analyst who doesn't want to be identified.
I mean, you're not an analyst. You're just some poor guy in the street then.
You lose your right to be called an analyst if you don't identify yourself.
They may be just moving in this direction and making a lot of noise, our cowardly friend said.
Virtually unlimited is a relative term, but the anonymous analyst said it does make for a good strategy
because it puts Sprint in a position of again being a front runner in a new technology that many expect will become an industry standard.
So that's the latest with that.
And finally, our final story tonight, this from CNN News, the Love Beeper.
Have you heard about this? Yeah.
OK, this is what they have over in Japan. Lonely hearts prowling the streets of Japan.
And they carry these beepers, 400,000 people.
400,000 people have bought one already.
They're hoping it'll open the door to romance.
It's a rather straightforward mix of love and get.
It's called the Love Getty. OK.
It's an oval disc that fits in your hand.
It's carried on forays into crowded places and sends out different signals depending on the setting.
When someone of the opposite sex carrying a Love Getty comes into range, the two machines beep or flash.
It only works for opposite sexes. That's interesting.
Then it's up to the would-be lovers to seek each other out or run the other way.
The device, which came out in February, has three settings for favorite activities.
Karaoke for romantic crooners.
Chat for those who want to talk.
And friends for something, well, more intimate.
This gives you a way to start a chat.
It's just one way to meet people, said Takaya Takafuji, executive planning director for the manufacturer, Earthlog.
Earthlog is a small company that makes modems.
They say there's a backlog for more than 200,000 units.
Encouraged by... Actually, this is how it works.
The beeper retails for about $22 and can pick up signals from five meters away.
A flashing green light means a match in interest, while red means there's a Love Getty next to you, but you've got the wrong setting.
The settings can be changed any time, and the timid can keep the beeper off so only the lights will flash.
Encouraged by brisk sales, the company plans to introduce an upgraded version in August with more choices, such as movie, drink, and dinner.
The new version will also pick up signals from 100 meters away.
What if the person at the other end of the signal isn't the one?
If this middle-aged man isn't your type or you think there's no way you want to talk to him, then you just walk away. He'll never notice.
Imagine that.
This can be expanded to all kinds of things, though, you know?
I mean, just anybody with any interest whatsoever.
You know, political affiliations.
You know, leanings in a certain direction.
Employees of certain companies.
Yeah, it's, uh...
Or how about this? Suspected criminals.
They don't know they're carrying it, and they walk near certain people and little lights go out.
This is a dangerous person.
Beware.
Okay, something, uh, something to consider there.
Let's take some phone calls.
212-209-2900, the new number for WBAI.
I'm not sure which number corresponds to what.
Some of them are taped up, some of them aren't working.
So we're just gonna have to, uh, be a little careful here, because I'm not entirely sure what will happen.
Let's take our first phone call on our brand-new number.
Good evening, you're on Off the Hook.
Hey, how you doing there?
Okay.
The streams don't seem to be doing too well tonight.
Can't really contact too many hosts.
There's a problem on the Internet, is there?
Oh, is there? I don't know.
I don't know. Is there a problem? You tell me. I'm not on the Internet right now.
We haven't gotten a report. We should have gotten a report by now.
Yeah, it seems like, well, I went in there at around 8 o'clock, and most of the links were broken.
Really?
And they got fixed up, and then I can only contact one out of five.
It's the last one from, uh, the NU domain. I don't know where that is.
Where are you calling from?
Boston.
Boston.
Um, well, I, you know, we just, we just moved today, in fact, to a new website.
Right.
A new location. I don't know if you've noticed that, uh, when you click on our webpage, uh, you get a different free Kevin banner.
Yeah, yeah.
Which sort of reflects the cover of 2600.
Uh, and that, uh, that signals the start of, uh, a brand new era in our web, uh, web communications.
Because right now, we have an actual machine that we can touch.
Before, we never had a machine that we could, uh, do things to.
Right.
So, it was very, very slow.
So, there are going to be a few stumbling blocks.
I'm not quite sure what's going wrong tonight, but, uh, you can count on things improving from this point on.
Oh, yeah.
We'll be able to move the radio shows, uh, there's a gap of radio shows we haven't been able to move on.
And that's because we had no disk space for, like, the last six months or so.
Now, we have plenty of space that will be happening really soon, so.
Great.
I'm sorry for the difficulties, but, uh.
Oh, no problem.
They're part of the growing pains, you know.
Yeah, I'm definitely getting it through, though.
Uh-huh.
I wanted to mention, though, last week, you were talking about the Nike trademark symbol.
Yes.
I got a lot of flack for that, you know.
Really?
How dare you criticize Nike?
You know, it's like, it's like I'm criticizing someone's dog or something, you know.
This is a multinational corporation, you know.
I can criticize them.
I wanted to tell you, my girlfriend saw someone, I don't know if she was in a mall or where she was,
but this guy had a Nike symbol tattooed on the back of his neck.
You know, I heard about this.
Somebody told me about this, that there are certain schools that Nike has approached and said,
if a certain number of people tattoo Nike onto their skin someplace,
if you reach a certain minimum number, we will give you free computers.
Can you believe this?
Oh, my gosh.
They're going to schools, they're going to schools saying,
if your youth will scar themselves for us, we'll give you free things.
I mean, you know, gang members can't do that.
They try, but they can never get people to do that and, you know, get away with it.
It's nuts.
You know, someone has to draw the line someplace.
First of all, you know, the people who wear this kind of stuff, why?
Just ask yourself why?
What does it mean?
Why are you doing it?
You know, is this really who you are?
Maybe it is, I don't know, but I just don't understand it.
You're paying money to advertise for somebody that certainly doesn't need, you know, your help advertising.
Yeah, they certainly don't care about you either.
I don't think so.
They certainly don't care about the people, you know, overseas.
I mean, yeah, they raise the minimum age, but that's a far cry from paying them a decent salary.
Yeah.
And you can say, yeah, but everybody does it.
That doesn't make it right.
Not at all.
That doesn't make it right at all.
One other thing.
I noticed you were complaining about your phone there.
I just got a new phone with OmniPoint.
It's a Nokia 6190.
Now, OmniPoint just moved into your area, didn't it?
Yeah, they've been here a few months now, actually.
Okay, and what kind of phone did you get?
You got the one with the computer on the back?
No, no, that's the 9000, actually.
Okay.
This one is a 6190.
It's just a nice small phone, GSM phone.
Right.
Battery life is awesome.
It's definitely over 100 hours standby.
Wow, that's pretty good.
How much?
They actually say 270 hours standby, but I guess that's probably only if you leave the phone sitting down
and don't change base stations by moving around and all that.
How much talk time do you get?
Pardon me?
Talk time.
How much of that?
About five or six hours.
Not bad.
Yeah, it's great.
The battery meter definitely stays up.
Okay.
So it's a great phone, and I definitely highly recommend it.
It's nice and loud.
I guess they fixed some of the speakers.
The older models weren't too good, but the speaker is definitely nice and loud.
So maybe check it out.
I had to actually purchase it from a guy in the Midwest because OmniPoint doesn't carry it here yet.
Oh, really?
They don't have that phone?
Yeah.
I bought it from VoiceStream.
So it wasn't SIM-locked, so I just plugged in my SIM card, and off I went.
Pretty cool.
That's good.
That's good.
Any final words for our listeners?
Nope.
I'll be listening back and probably chatting with you soon.
Okay.
Well, thanks for calling, and good luck with the stream.
Cool.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks for being here.
Isaac is back, and Isaac, how was your venture into Sprintland?
Did you talk to a customer advocate?
Yes, I did.
Another one.
That was after they mentioned to me that they declared May Driver Safety Month.
They did declare that, didn't they?
Yes.
I don't know what that means to us.
I don't know.
It's like a federal mandate kind of thing where you have to drive safely.
Well, I think because so many people are killing themselves using Sprint phones while they're driving.
Well, it's that shrieking thing in the air.
You know, three of the four times I threw my phone down, I was in a car at the time.
And, you know, I realized, well, you have to have the leather case, first of all, to do this effectively.
Otherwise, it just snaps in half.
You know, you have a cellular phone, and you get mad at somebody.
How do you hang out?
How do you slam the phone down with that satisfying way that you could with the old Western electric phones?
You just don't get it.
You throw it.
You throw the phone.
You throw the phone, and you get that.
You throw the phone, and you get a good throw, too.
And it goes quite a distance, and it bounces like I mentioned before.
It bounces right back onto the desk.
It's entertaining.
I mean.
And I don't know how it sounds on the other end.
If I've ever gotten angry at somebody and slammed my cellular phone down,
I'd like to know from those people when I start talking to you again what it sounded like.
It's a little click, and then it just kind of went silent for a little while.
Hopefully, it's more than that.
Okay.
Hopefully, it's like a bouncing type of a noise.
Anyway.
Yes.
I'm sorry.
What happened?
Well, I talked to my customer advocate, and she informed me that since I had a previous promotional package,
I'm not eligible for this extra package to be added on.
Now, wait a minute.
What was your previous program?
My previous promo package was 400 minutes for $50.
You know, I just helped somebody earlier today with the exact same, you know, package as you.
Well.
And they got it for free.
So I suggest you march right back in there, and you keep at it until you find a customer advocate that will give it to you.
A real customer advocate.
Yes.
Not a semi-pseudo-advocate.
Well, somebody who's competent, I think.
Okay.
Because, I mean, they are giving this away, 500 minutes weekend and evening to.
Well, I could get it.
It'll just cost me $14.99 on top of what I'm paying now.
Or rather, that's what she informed me of.
She seemed to be, like, really going through the computer.
I've got the 600-minute deal for $60 or something like that, which you can't get anymore.
Right.
Well, you can't get the 400 for $50 either, so.
I think it's just who you talk to.
All right.
So.
I'll keep trying.
I suggest talking to somebody else, but I'm pretty sure they gave you wrong information because I've heard the opposite more times than I've heard this.
Well.
But this is good information.
It shows you what you have to go through to get something these days.
You know, they drive you crazy.
Totally drive you crazy.
Speaking of being driven crazy, you know, I went over to Dayton, Ohio, a couple of weeks ago.
That wasn't driving me crazy.
What drove me crazy, though, trying to use a credit card, right?
I have this MasterCard, right?
And I was using it.
Now, I get to Ohio, and I'm using it to put gas.
You know, drove the 2600 van out there, so, of course, that's a lot of gas.
You know, you've got to keep filling it up every now and then.
And it stopped working.
The car?
The car or the card?
I don't know.
The van worked fine.
Okay.
But the card didn't work.
It said, see attendant.
You know, the pump says, see attendant.
Right.
And then you have to go in and see the attendant.
Well, I saw the attendant.
The attendant said, okay, you have to talk to them.
I'm like, okay.
They hand me the phone, and I get this automated thing that says, enter your merchant number.
And I'm like, you know, I don't know what the merchant number is, so I ask them, what's the merchant number?
They don't know what the merchant number is.
They've never done this before.
Obviously, they're calling the number that they're supposed to call, not the customer's supposed to call.
So I wound up using a different card and just, you know, hightailing it out of there.
But then a couple days later, I had to use it again, and it didn't work then either.
So then I'm like, you know, something's wrong here.
Why is my card?
I paid up the bill, you know.
You're one of the few cards I've paid, so there should not be a problem here.
So I get somebody on the phone, and they say, yes, we noticed some suspicious activity on your account there,
that there was a purchase in New York, and there was a purchase in New Jersey,
then there was a purchase in Pennsylvania, and then there was a purchase in Ohio.
Imagine that.
We thought maybe something, and they're all at gas stations.
And I was, you know...
You see, they're looking out for you.
I was incredulous.
So I said to them, you know, what do you think is happening here?
Just tell me, what do you think is going on?
You have a progression from east to west at gas stations.
What do you think I'm doing?
I'm traveling.
I'm driving somewhere, and I'm stopping at gas stations, and I'm getting gas.
There's nothing fraudulent going on there.
Yes, I'm in four different states because I'm going to four different states.
And they were like, oh, okay.
Well, then we'll turn your card back on.
They're looking out for you.
That's not looking out for me.
That's the kind of parenting I don't need, you know.
That's annoying.
Having your hand held every step of the way.
I guess I'll have to tell them every time I make a purchase.
I'm about to do this.
This is okay, you know, am I going to confuse the computer?
Ugh.
All right, let's see if we can squeeze in a couple more here.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hey, uh...
How you doing?
Hey, yeah, this is Lord Zarf out of Salisbury, California.
What are you Lord of?
Uh, I'm just, uh, Lord Zarf, just off the hook.
Uh, this is off the hook, you're live on the air.
Um, I'll take it, um...
Okay.
Is this manual?
Yes, this is a manual.
I'm just incredulous, because I've been trying to get on for like, oh, the past half an hour,
and the real audio hasn't been that great, so I haven't been able to hear if you've been answering the phone.
Oh, well, I'm sorry about that.
Yeah.
You have my written assurance that this will be addressed and fixed.
Okay, yeah.
It looks like it'll be done by next week, but yeah, I just wanted to...
Um...
You were talking a while back about Nike donating computers to such-and-such schools.
Uh-huh.
I just wanted to tell you that I'm, um,
that I'm basically one of the officers of the Lehigh School System Administrations Committee,
and basically the answer to what,
I believe it's the answer to what, um, all these schools have been paused with,
and basically it's a completely student-run organization that maintains all the computers and technology on campus.
Okay.
And it's basically what, that you have, it saves the district a whole lot of money,
and, uh, in a lot of cases, we actually know more than the teachers, which people...
That's not at all surprising.
Yeah, I know it isn't.
Yeah, so...
But the teachers actually, uh, respect that.
Yeah, and, uh...
That's what's unusual.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Have you had any run-ins with Nike?
Uh, no, I haven't.
Okay.
I don't wear, uh, Nike shoes, because I can't afford paying a hundred bucks for a pair of shoes I'm probably going to destroy in about a week or so.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, that, that, that, that's a logical approach.
Yeah, um, so...
I just wanted, um, I noticed that we don't have much time left, so I just wanted to call in and tell you about that,
and also I wanted to, uh, send out some shouts to, uh, Wilkie and Space Mountain State.
Okay, well, thanks very much for calling, and, uh, good luck out there.
All right, let's take one more phone call at our new number, 2-1-2-2-0-9-2-9-0-0.
Good evening, you're on Off The Hook.
Oh, it's a Tone.
Tones are calling us now.
Hello, Tone, how are you?
Take this.
Oh-ho-ho!
Uh-oh, I turned it into a dial tone.
I don't know how I did that.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hi, good evening.
You're absolutely right.
The rings don't cut off with the new company.
It's been ringing for a half an hour or so.
Really?
Yep.
Oh, that's great news.
That's great news for everybody listening to WBAI.
You can now call us again like you could in the old days, and not have to worry about it cutting off, as long as you're within the local Bell Atlantic area.
Ah, yeah, that would be interesting.
Somebody try out of that area, into this area.
But this company, yeah, it's like the old days.
Also, well, by the way, there's only signal in the left channel for most of the evening.
I don't know if anybody there knows or cares, but whatever's leading through to the right is maybe crosstalk.
Only in the left, it's been my way for quite a while.
And your time stamp, when you called your own number, it was stamped in the future, because it was still 838, and they were saying 839.
Oh, dear.
Well, that's a problem.
I'm sure they're going to have to address.
But thanks very much for updating us on that.
I don't know about the left, right channel thing.
We'll look into that.
But bear with us.
We're in a new studio, in a new location, and there are going to be all kinds of weird things going on over the air for the next probably couple of weeks, until we get everything sorted out.
But it'll be worth it.
We'll be here louder and stronger than ever, with the help of our listeners.
Okay, until next week, then.
This is Emanuel Goldstein for Off the Hook.
In fact, I can remember where my theme is.
Okay, there it is over there.
And I guess if I press this button, there's my theme.
How nice.
We'll be back again next week with another edition of Off the Hook here on WBAI New York.
Until then, Emanuel Goldstein.
Good night.
So I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving.
Now I can't make a cut.
It couldn't get much worse.
But if it could, it would.
Bum diddly bum, but the best is back to worst.
I hope that's understood.
Bum diddly bum!