900-number party lines in the late 80s and early 90s were extremely popular. Did you call any? Have you ever heard what it sounded like to be on a party line? It's basically like being a chatroom, but instead you're on the telephone talking to people, not typing. Lots of people talking at the same time. And there were a lot of troublemakers.

The technology was pretty good, but limited, and sound quality was fair. Up to 8 people (plus a monitor) could be in one party line room at a time. There were multiple party line rooms, limited by the equipment, which was basically a "high-tech" PC (just over $50,000 USD each) located in a call center. The "monitor" or "operator" worked for us and tried to moderate the room. She had some control, other than just trying to talk callers into being civil, that enabled her to cut off callers that just wouldn't cooperate. She would jump from room to room to keep the conversations lively. This went on 24/7.

There was also an advanced feature that would allow two callers to "go private" and talk to each other without anyone else listening. However, there was also a backdoor that allowed us to access the private rooms without the callers knowing.

The audio portion of this video will give you an idea of how a real party line sounded. I tried to choose recordings that were quieter and more controlled. Party lines could be (and usually were) chaotic. Of course, there was a lot of profanity, etc. until the monitor could determine what line the offending caller was on and disconnect them. It was a hectic job (our monitors worked from their homes), and they did it well. The clicks and clacks that you hear on the recording are callers entering and leaving the room.

If you want to hear more party line snippets, comment below and I'll post more of these types of videos. Enjoy!


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