NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Telecom Blast From the Past: "ZZZZZZ" Recordings
Telecom Blast From the Past: "ZZZZZZ" Recordings
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000883.html
One of the great things about Google+ is all the wonderful folks
popping up on it now. Having noticed that a number of old "ancient
telecom enthusiasts" (aka "phone phreaks") were starting to appear, I
posted earlier today references to a couple of my essays about the
beginnings of "telephone entertainment" and "ZZZZZZ" (one written in
2009, the other back in 1991) [ http://j.mp/rlIT5u (Lauren's Blog) ].
This triggered (see the comments on that Google+ entry above) a reader
posting several FTP archives of old ZZZZZZ recordings. Though I have
my own locally recorded ZZZZZZ tapes buried somewhere, it was fun to
see these online in any form.
Those archived online recordings mostly date to around the early 70s
or so, and I remember writing a number of those scripts. In fact, two
of these very brief recordings that happen to be in that collection
really struck a cord, and I've extracted them as a single MP3 file
playable right here: http://j.mp/qwuw3l [~1.26 MB] (Lauren's Blog).
The first of the two (I wrote both) is especially interesting due to
the pops and clicks over the playing of "Jingle Bells." These were
caused by notes of the song hitting 2600 Hz and triggering the "SF"
in-band signaling system (the same frequency as the infamous "Captain
Crunch" phone phreak whistle). In fact, the party who taped that
segment for the archive actually edited out several seconds of silence
during "Jingle Bells" before the SF filters dropped and restored the
audio path. A brief pop at the end of the segment is present for the
same reason.
In that first segment -- "Eddie discovers the truth about Christmas" --
the father is voiced by the late Bob Bilkiss, the creator of ZZZZZZ
who ran "Z" from his home throughout its entire duration. The voice
of "smart aleck" Eddie is, uh, well, you can guess.
The second segment is a parody of a series of detergent commercials
that was popular at the time. The obnoxious guy trying to make a deal
with the poor housewife to trade detergents is voiced by the same
joker who performed Eddie.
It's hard for me to believe that these were made around 40 years ago!
Bizarrely, I find that I can still do those voices, too. Scary.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com