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It's a real bummer a lot of these things are going by the wayside. I remember calling up the time on the phone too and sometimes it was sponsored, usually by Duquesne Light here in Pittsburgh, Myself, I use WWV for my clocks, I usually carry my Grundig G6 Aviator around the house, thank God it is the size of a cigarette pack. :)

We had a "time & temperature" number in the 80's. Wasn't affiliated with the telephone company though.

For years you could dial a number at Moisant Field and get a recording of the NOAA Weather Radio forecast. That ended around ten years ago I guess but the separate line for the marine forecast continued for a few years more.

cell phones, the tv and computers auto update and are dead on. There is really little need for it anymore.
I'm surprised they are still broadcasting the time beckons on 5, 10, 15mhz or whatever they are.

cell phones, the tv and computers auto update and are dead on. There is really little need for it anymore.
I'm surprised they are still broadcasting the time beckons on 5, 10, 15mhz or whatever they are.

Those things used to freak me out! At the tone...2 hours 45 minutes quardenated time beep beep beep then hoop.. I can still hear that robot computer male voice.

I may have to do what NowhereMan1966 does and use WWV to reset my clocks too, when there are power outages, to reset for DST->EST, or vice versa. We still have a time and temperature number here in the Cleveland area, but it is now sponsored by a local television station and is completely automated. Nothing like what it was as recently as twenty-five or thirty years ago. I remember when this was a time-only service, operated by the phone company (Ohio Bell at the time--pardon the pun). When the number was dialed, the operator (a. k. a. The Time Lady) would answer "At the tone, the time will be (current time of day, with seconds)", then the call would automatically disconnect, as it still does today if you stay on the line long enough. I guess they didn't and still don't want people tying up the line for hours on end, just listening to the time signal over and over again; this makes sense, since the phone company probably has only one line dedicated to this service.

To CTC17: You are correct. WWV has five 1-kW transmitters in Boulder, Colorado -- on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. Your distance from Boulder will determine what frequency comes in best in your area at various times of the day. For example, I live near Cleveland, Ohio, so I get WWV on 10, 15 and 20 MHz during the day, and 5 MHz at night. In your area, near Los Angeles, you will likely get the best reception day or night on one or more of the higher frequencies, though you may hear WWV on 2.5 MHz under optimal conditions. If you have a clock or a wristwatch that sets itself automatically using WWVB at 60 kHz, it may or may not work (well or at all) in the Los Angeles area due to the mountainous nature of the terrain.

cell phones, the tv and computers auto update and are dead on. There is really little need for it anymore.
I'm surprised they are still broadcasting the time beckons on 5, 10, 15mhz or whatever they are.

Where do you think cell phone companies, GPS, Internet and TV Master Clocks get the time from? WWV, via the Naval Research lab and other national time labs. I toured the NRL at the Washington Navy Yard in 2006 - it seems they feed the WWV signal to the GPS Satellites and actually developed the first rudimentary space-based navigation system back in the 60's. Pretty cool stuff.

Cheers,

w0w, interesting. I thought the GPS satellites had some kind of atomic clock. I know the cell sites use gps time.
I check the WWV beacons mostly when Im out camping, It helps give an idea what ham bands may be open.

We were out last week camping by Death Valley and every single WWV station was booming in. They were announcing the sun spot explosion on WWV.
The DX was absolutely amazing. At night I was getting Wxxx stations on the AM broadcast band, the band was so packed with stations at night there were like 3 stations on every frequency. Was just like noise and I was just using a 60s transistor radio with the ferrite bar antenna.
I have never heard it like that ever, I actually took my camera and recorded some of it because it was so impressive. Sorry to go off topic...

Well we still have the "If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again" lady. :yes:

Here's a neat Archive of different Phone message recordings.

http://www.payphone-directory.org/sounds.html

They removed the old 853-1212 number for time out here long ago.
Another thing that's disappearing are pay phones,they used to be on every corner now they are almost non existant.
They have even removed the payphone that used to be at the local airport.

I guess they assume almost everyone has a cell phone now.

Here's a neat Archive of different Phone message recordings.


Want to spend hours listening to the phone?

phonetrips.org (http://www.wideweb.com/phonetrips/)

-Jason

They removed the old 853-1212 number for time out here long ago.
Another thing that's disappearing are pay phones,they used to be on every corner now they are almost non existant.
They have even removed the payphone that used to be at the local airport.

I guess they assume almost everyone has a cell phone now.

That's probably it. There were a few pay telephones in my small town near Cleveland until a couple years ago; however, they disappeared one by one as more and more folks got cell phones. It's to the point now where there is only one pay phone left in this town, and that's a drive-up phone near the RediGo convenience store; but again, with cell phones being so popular these days, I think that phone's days may be numbered. After all, it's much easier to use a wireless phone in your parked car than to reach for a wired handset and drop coins into a pay phone.

The time and temperature number for years in northeastern Ohio was 216.931.1212 (actually, it was set up so that one could dial any four numbers, except perhaps 0000, after the 931 and still get hold of the service). It is still active, but, as I mentioned in another post, it is now fully automated and sponsored by WKYC-TV, the NBC television network affiliate in Cleveland. Again, with the popularity of wireless phones, however, I am not at all sure how long that number will be around. I can even see a day in the not too distant future when these time/temperature services will be discontinued in nearly every corner of the United States. These services were good and very useful while they lasted, but the technology shifts over the last few years have all but rendered them obsolete -- after all, as one other person stated earlier in this thread, the automatic clock set functions of computers, VCRs, et al. are spot-on accurate, so there is little if any need for anyone to use the time/temperature phone numbers to reset clocks these days. Some wall clocks and wristwatches are equipped with a WWVB receiver that picks up that station's time signal and uses it to reset the time for DST->EST or vice versa, or even to set the timepiece for different time zones.

Well we still have the "If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again" lady. :yes:

Here's a neat Archive of different Phone message recordings.

http://www.payphone-directory.org/sounds.html

One signal Ohio Bell used to use in the '60s and perhaps earlier was a whooping siren tone that sounded if you didn't pull your rotary telephone dial all the way down to the finger stop when dialing. I was a kid in the '60s, and that sound used to scare the daylights out of me -- to the point where I was actually afraid to use the phone, for fear of hearing that horrible sound again. It was years, until I was maybe 14 years old, before I got over that fear. I don't know why it scared me so much, but then again, I did a lot of things as a kid, and had some fears at the time, that I could never figure out and still cannot understand to this day. :scratch2:

The "...if you'd like to make a call, please hang up and dial your operator..." recording is alive and well here in Ohio as well if you leave your phone off-hook too long or if you press the wrong button on a telephone keypad (I get this message if I hit the pound [#] key without dialing anything else ahead of it, and even if I hit more than one number, then press that key, I get a message saying "you have reached a number that is no longer in service..."), along with recordings that warn you when you do not dial 1 and an area code ahead of a long-distance telephone number, if a call cannot be completed as dialed, if you dial a disconnected number or one that is not in service for any reason, et al. I do not think the siren tone is used much or at all anymore because most folks nowadays have Touch-Tone phones; I personally do not know anyone who still uses rotary phones on telephone company lines, although these oldies do have their uses -- as intercoms, for example, and it is entirely possible that such phones are still in use in very small towns with few residents, where the local "telephone company" is a small building in the center of town with a manual switchboard operated by a human. The town of Upton, Kentucky (there may have been and may still be others, mostly one-horse or half-horse towns out in the middle of nowhere) even used hand-cranked battery-powered wall phones until some time in the '60s, and there was an article in an issue of one of the electronics magazines of the period describing the day the town's phone service was converted to automated dialing. The title of the article was "The Day The Dial Tone Came To Upton", and it ended with the sentence, "....after all, you can't say to a dial tone, 'Hello, Central, give me number nine.'"

AFAIK, we still have a time/temperature number in my area. Also, most, if not all, of the pay phones have been taken out of service. Years ago, the phone company announced that they would slowly be phasing out pay phones because so many people now have cell phones, making the old pay phones non-profitable. I finally got a "pay as you go" cell phone for emergency situations and only a select few people have the number. If someone wants to have an extended conversation with me, they should call the land line. If I'm not there, I'll catch up with them later. Frankly, I don't care to be accessible to the world 24/7, no matter where I am.

When Illinois Bell still exisited, and my aunt was an operator, she once got the honor of reading the telephone weather in Chicago. We all called to hear her. Then, when the report changed, the next honoree (or maybe a regular reader?) read the new one.

One signal Ohio Bell used to use in the '60s and perhaps earlier was a whooping siren tone that sounded if you didn't pull your rotary telephone dial all the way down to the finger stop when dialing.

That sound disappeared when the old switches were converted from step and crossbar to digital types. I remember one exchange when I was young was still a crossbar and everything sounded different when making a call (the old VErnon exchange.)


I do not think the siren tone is used much or at all anymore because most folks nowadays have Touch-Tone phones; I personally do not know anyone who still uses rotary phones on telephone company lines, although these oldies do have their uses -- as intercoms, for example, and it is entirely possible that such phones are still in use in very small towns with few residents, where the local "telephone company" is a small building in the center of town with a manual switchboard operated by a human.

I mainly use dial phones, except when calling a number I know will terminate in a menu with no default to an operator. As far as I know there are no manual switches left in the telephone network - the days of operators routing calls through a board are well past. In fact, the last step and crossbar switches were phased out by their independent owners within the last ten years or so.

If you don't have a shortwave radio to hear WWV, the bands are down, or you are in a steel building (often my situation), you can hear WWV by telephone at (303) 499-7111 (including all of the announcements as well as the time - handy for the space weather at :18 past the hour).

This way, the time you receive cannot be fast - but it could be slow. In my experience, my cell phone, my cable phone and my VOIP phone are all less than 1/2 second slow.

I still miss the Bell number with the local time every 10 seconds and the voice of Jane Barbe. We lost ours (GReenwich 2-1212, though any 313 472-xxxx worked) about ten years ago.

In fact, the last step and crossbar switches were phased out by their independent owners within the last ten years or so.

I had a summer job for WECO (Western Electric) in the mid 60s installing gear in a downtown Chicago crossbar office. When we arrived in the morning, you would hear occasional clicks that gradually turned into a continuous clatter as downtown businesses opened. One of the summer help dropped a long nose pliers into a switch, shutting down service to the Sun Times. The next day, we spent the whole day getting a lecture on safe work procedures.

All that stuff must be ripped out and replaced by now.

I still miss the Bell number with the local time every 10 seconds and the voice of Jane Barbe. We lost ours (GReenwich 2-1212, though any 313 472-xxxx worked) about ten years ago.

Here in northeast Ohio, the time and temperature number still exists, as 216.931.1212 (aka 216.WE1.1212). In the WE1.xxxx era (1950s until at least the end of the seventies), one could use any four digits after the WE1 and get the time/weather service; however, I don't know if this dodge would work with today's digital telephone networks. The phone company's computers that power this service may well be programmed only to recognize 216.931.1212; any other four-digit number after the exchange could result in an error message and, of course, the call will not be completed.

I never tried using WWV's time by phone service. I have unlimited nationwide calling here, so could use that number any time and as often as needed without incurring long-distance charges on my telephone bill; however, since I have my Icom IC-725 9-band ham rig, which has a general coverage receiver (0.5-30 MHz) as well as my Zenith Royal 1000 TransOceanic, I can tune in to WWV and get the absolute exact time without timing errors. I just had Time Warner Cable's digital phone service installed here a week or two ago. If I were to call WWV's time number, would there be any errors between the announced time and the actual time as recorded by the NIST cesium-beam clock system? I wonder about this because of your having mentioned that, on your digital phone, there can be an error as great as +2 seconds. If this is the case with all digital phone systems, I may stick with getting the exact time over WWV or via the NIST's web site (www.nist.gov).

That time number is cool! Love all the quickly spoken ads :D

-J

Here in northeast Ohio, the time and temperature number still exists, as 216.931.1212 (aka 216.WE1.1212). In the WE1.xxxx era (1950s until at least the end of the seventies), one could use any four digits after the WE1 and get the time/weather service; however, I don't know if this dodge would work with today's digital telephone networks. The phone company's computers that power this service may well be programmed only to recognize 216.931.1212; any other four-digit number after the exchange could result in an error message and, of course, the call will not be completed. <snip>


Interesting that they would have used the 931 exchange for this service in Cleveland. In Detroit, the weather (not the time) from Michigan Bell was 932-1212.

Like your description of Cleveland's system, and the time number in Detroit, one could dial any four digits after the first three and make the connection. 932 was particularly clever in that it could be dialed W-E-A-T-H-E-R (932-8437) as well. Having a rotary dial, I always dialed 932-1111 as it was fastest.

I tried the 216-931-1212 just now - just too many ads to go through to get the content, IMHO. I did not try any alternate 216 931-xxxx, as I can only assume I would reach someone else, unrelated to WKYC, making them quite angry!

We lost the weather number in the mid-1980's - actually a court order banned them from offering it, saying it interfered with competition from the private sector. It was replaced with a plethora of pay 313-976-xxxx numbers that few people used.

In contrast, the time number ran until the early years of this century.

Interesting that they would have used the 931 exchange for this service in Cleveland. In Detroit, the weather (not the time) from Michigan Bell was 932-1212.

Like your description of Cleveland's system, and the time number in Detroit, one could dial any four digits after the first three and make the connection. 932 was particularly clever in that it could be dialed W-E-A-T-H-E-R (932-8437) as well. Having a rotary dial, I always dialed 932-1111 as it was fastest.

I tried the 216-931-1212 just now - just too many ads to go through to get the content, IMHO. I did not try any alternate 216 931-xxxx, as I can only assume I would reach someone else, unrelated to WKYC, making them quite angry!

We lost the weather number in the mid-1980's - actually a court order banned them from offering it, saying it interfered with competition from the private sector. It was replaced with a plethora of pay 313-976-xxxx numbers that few people used.

In contrast, the time number ran until the early years of this century.


The 932 exchange is assigned to the Cleveland Heights area, so the time/temperature service for Cleveland probably could not use it. That exchange must not be in use in the Detroit area.

How do you know about WKYC (NBC channel 3) in Cleveland, if you live in Michigan? I'm sure the cable systems in your area don't get that channel, any more than my cable here way outside Cleveland doesn't get Detroit's channels 2, 4, 7. I also heard that channel 2 in Detroit swapped networks with one of the city's UHF stations some time ago. The channel 8 CBS station in Cleveland pulled this nonsense back in the early 1990s as well, dropping its CBS affiliation and going with FOX. CBS in northeast Ohio is now on channel 19, channel 4 on my cable, which drives me nuts because I could never understand why the cable didn't put this channel on its right number, and still don't understand it today; the cable operator here, Time Warner, tells me that the network told them to put CBS 19 on channel 4 on all cable systems in this area. Frankly, I wish they would have left all the stations alone, with channel 8 still carrying CBS. I did not care for channel 19 anyway when it went on the air in 1985, and I care for it even less since it affiliated with CBS and channel 8 took FOX. I'm waiting for the day when they switch networks back to where they used to be -- and, IMO, where they belong. "CBS 19" just doesn't sound right to me. FOX pulled this monkey business a few years ago in a few other cities as well, such as Phoenix, Arizona and several others I can't recall at the moment. Channel 8 in Cleveland isn't even owned by FOX Broadcasting anymore (some two-bit local broadcasting group bought the station recently), so I don't see what's keeping them from getting CBS back from station 19, and the latter reclaiming FOX. :scratch2:

The 932 exchange is assigned to the Cleveland Heights area, so the time/temperature service for Cleveland probably could not use it. That exchange must not be in use in the Detroit area.

How do you know about WKYC (NBC channel 3) in Cleveland, if you live in Michigan? I'm sure the cable systems in your area don't get that channel, any more than my cable here way outside Cleveland doesn't get Detroit's channels 2, 4, 7. I also heard that channel 2 in Detroit swapped networks with one of the city's UHF stations some time ago. The channel 8 CBS station in Cleveland pulled this nonsense back in the early 1990s as well, dropping its CBS affiliation and going with FOX. CBS in northeast Ohio is now on channel 19, channel 4 on my cable, which drives me nuts because I could never understand why the cable didn't put this channel on its right number, and still don't understand it today; the cable operator here, Time Warner, tells me that the network told them to put CBS 19 on channel 4 on all cable systems in this area. Frankly, I wish they would have left all the stations alone, with channel 8 still carrying CBS. I did not care for channel 19 anyway when it went on the air in 1985, and I care for it even less since it affiliated with CBS and channel 8 took FOX. I'm waiting for the day when they switch networks back to where they used to be -- and, IMO, where they belong. "CBS 19" just doesn't sound right to me. FOX pulled this monkey business a few years ago in a few other cities as well, such as Phoenix, Arizona and several others I can't recall at the moment. Channel 8 in Cleveland isn't even owned by FOX Broadcasting anymore (some two-bit local broadcasting group bought the station recently), so I don't see what's keeping them from getting CBS back from station 19, and the latter reclaiming FOX. :scratch2:

Neither Detroit area nor Toledo area cable systems carry any Cleveland TV stations. Usually, Cleveland stations cannot be seen in either of those cities, but commonly appear over-the-air (especially in the summer, and almost all nighttime hours in the summer) by tropospheric refraction (the same phenomenon that used to cause us to get into each others' 2-meter repeaters before they put PL on all of them). It is especially common over bodies of water (e.g.: Lake Erie). I've been seeing Cleveland OTA in Detroit for nearly 40 years (got channel 61 when it was WKBF).

Since WKYC changed their DT RF channel from channel 2 to channel 17, it has been a very regular visitor. Their 3.2 weather radar is helpful for TV DXing, as tropo shows up as a blue cast on their radar. When tropo shows up, I go to 3.2., and I get some idea where tropo is open to.

Soon after Michigan Bell ended the weather service, the 932 exchange went to the MAyfair group in then fast-growing and upscale central Oakland County. That exchange became 810-932 with the first area code split in 1993, and another split since has made it 248-932. With no 313-932 exchange in use due to the splits, they could open a new 313-932 (the reason for splitting area codes) and it is now used for Sprint PCS phones
(be willing to bet that neither of these exchanges has a 923-1212 nor a 932-8437).

WOIO likely wanted to be on cable channel 4 because, being between 3 and 5, 4 put them together with the other big old networks. Cable systems like to set up a "neighborhood" (my word - they might have another term for it) on the channel table for local stations.
Examples:
Comcast Detroit-
3 WMYD, MyTV, virtual 20, RF 21
5 WKBD, CW, virtual 50, RF 14
6 WTVS, PBS, virtual 56, RF 43
12 WJBK, Fox, virtual 2, RF 7
14 WDIV, NBC, virtual 4, RF 45
15 WWJ, CBS, virtual 62, RF 44
16 WPXD, Ion, virtual and RF 31
17 WXYZ, ABC, virtual 7, RF 41
(the local stations had long ago been shifted away from cable channels 2, 4 and 7 due to interference from the OTA transmitters on the same actual channels)

Buckeye Toledo-
Two "neighborhoods" for main local channels
and low power/semi-local channels
6 (both) WLMB, ind., virtual 40, RF 5
7 (analog) WTOL, CBS, virtual and RF 11
8 (analog) WTVG, ABC, virtual and RF 13
9 (both) WGTE, PBS, virtual 30, RF 29
10 (both) WNWO, NBC, virtual 24, RF 49
11 (digital) WTOL
12 (both) WUPW, Fox, virtual 36, RF 46
13 (digital) WTVG
(in analog cable, 11 and 13 are shifted for the same reason as Detroit above, in digital cable, there is no such interference, because the signal doesn't actually use those channels)
And their other "neighborhood":
50 WKBD CW 50 Detroit
51 WXYZ ABC 7 Detroit
52 WJBK Fox 2 Detroit
53 W38DH HSN 38 Toledo
54 WDIV NBC 4 Detroit
57 WBGU PBS 27 Bowling Green
58 WMNT-CA My 48 Toledo
59 CBET CBC 9 Windsor
(in case you wondered, 55 is Telemundo and 56 EWTN [catholic] - Buckeye is possibly the only cable system in the country that provides Telemundo to all subscribers, but no Univision in any package)

The 932 exchange is assigned to the Cleveland Heights area, so the time/temperature service for Cleveland probably could not use it. That exchange must not be in use in the Detroit area.

How do you know about WKYC (NBC channel 3) in Cleveland, if you live in Michigan? I'm sure the cable systems in your area don't get that channel, any more than my cable here way outside Cleveland doesn't get Detroit's channels 2, 4, 7. I also heard that channel 2 in Detroit swapped networks with one of the city's UHF stations some time ago. The channel 8 CBS station in Cleveland pulled this nonsense back in the early 1990s as well, dropping its CBS affiliation and going with FOX. CBS in northeast Ohio is now on channel 19, channel 4 on my cable, which drives me nuts because I could never understand why the cable didn't put this channel on its right number, and still don't understand it today; the cable operator here, Time Warner, tells me that the network told them to put CBS 19 on channel 4 on all cable systems in this area. Frankly, I wish they would have left all the stations alone, with channel 8 still carrying CBS. I did not care for channel 19 anyway when it went on the air in 1985, and I care for it even less since it affiliated with CBS and channel 8 took FOX. I'm waiting for the day when they switch networks back to where they used to be -- and, IMO, where they belong. "CBS 19" just doesn't sound right to me. FOX pulled this monkey business a few years ago in a few other cities as well, such as Phoenix, Arizona and several others I can't recall at the moment. Channel 8 in Cleveland isn't even owned by FOX Broadcasting anymore (some two-bit local broadcasting group bought the station recently), so I don't see what's keeping them from getting CBS back from station 19, and the latter reclaiming FOX. :scratch2:

Neither Detroit area nor Toledo area cable systems carry any Cleveland TV stations. Usually, Cleveland stations cannot be seen in either of those cities, but commonly appear over-the-air (especially in the summer, and almost all nighttime hours in the summer) by tropospheric refraction (the same phenomenon that used to cause us to get into each others' 2-meter repeaters before they put PL on all of them). It is especially common over bodies of water (e.g.: Lake Erie). I've been seeing Cleveland OTA in Detroit for nearly 40 years (got channel 61 when it was WKBF).

Since WKYC changed their DT RF channel from channel 2 to channel 17, it has been a very regular visitor. Their 3.2 weather radar is helpful for TV DXing, as tropo shows up as a blue cast on their radar. When tropo shows up, I go to 3.2., and I get some idea where tropo is open to.

Soon after Michigan Bell ended the weather service, the 932 exchange went to the MAyfair group in then fast-growing and upscale central Oakland County. That exchange became 810-932 with the first area code split in 1993, and another split since has made it 248-932. With no 313-932 exchange in use due to the splits, they could open a new 313-932 (the reason for splitting area codes) and it is not used for Sprint PCS phones
(be willing to bet that neither of these exchanges has a 923-1212 nor a 932-8437).

WOIO likely wanted to be on cable channel 4 because, being between 3 and 5, 4 put them together with the other big old networks. Cable systems like to set up a "neighborhood" (my word - they might have another term for it) on the channel table for local stations.
Examples:
Comcast Detroit-
3 WMYD, MyTV, virtual 20, RF 21
5 WKBD, CW, virtual 50, RF 14
6 WTVS, PBS, virtual 56, RF 43
12 WJBK, Fox, virtual 2, RF 7
14 WDIV, NBC, virtual 4, RF 45
15 WWJ, CBS, virtual 62, RF 44
16 WPXD, Ion, virtual and RF 31
17 WXYZ, ABC, virtual 7, RF 41
(the local stations had long ago been shifted away from cable channels 2, 4 and 7 due to interference from the OTA transmitters on the same actual channels)

Buckeye Toledo-
Two "neighborhoods" for main local channels
and low power/semi-local channels
6 (both) WLMB, ind., virtual 40, RF 5
7 (analog) WTOL, CBS, virtual and RF 11
8 (analog) WTVG, ABC, virtual and RF 13
9 (both) WGTE, PBS, virtual 30, RF 29
10 (both) WNWO, NBC, virtual 24, RF 49
11 (digital) WTOL
12 (both) WUPW, Fox, virtual 36, RF 46
13 (digital) WTVG
(in analog cable, 11 and 13 are shifted for the same reason as Detroit above, in digital cable, there is no such interference, because the signal doesn't actually use those channels)
And their other "neighborhood":
50 WKBD CW 50 Detroit
51 WXYZ ABC 7 Detroit
52 WJBK Fox 2 Detroit
53 W38DH HSN 38 Toledo
54 WDIV NBC 4 Detroit
57 WBGU PBS 27 Bowling Green
58 WMNT-CA My 48 Toledo
59 CBET CBC 9 Windsor
(in case you wondered, 55 is Telemundo and 56 EWTN [catholic] - Buckeye is possibly the only cable system in the country that provides Telemundo to all subscribers, but no Univision in any package)

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I wasn't here before there were non-automated time ladys. How did this work? And could she hear you on the other end of the line?

Note I was talking about the weather, not the time. Not sure how the early time service worked. The weather was recorded and played back repeatedly - not sure how often it changed, but I suspect it was hourly.