beep line

For most of the 20th century, calls were usually placed on the public switched telephone network via electromechanical switching equipment. When a caller dialed a number that was busy or permanently unavailable, the central office of their carrier would shunt the incoming call to a circuit on which the busy signal tone was produced. These busy signal circuits did not have their voice path cut off, and as a result, if two or more people reached the same busy signal, they could potentially talk to each other and host a conversation over the sound of the busy signal.{{cite magazine | date=October 18, 1963 | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,873772,00.html | title=The Telephone: Beep Line | magazine=Time | publisher=Time Inc. | volume=82 | issue=16 | page=54 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418160418/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,873772,00.html | archivedate=April 18, 2023}}{{cite news | date=October 17, 1963 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-tar-heel-what-a-mess/123079255/ | title=What a Mess! | work=The Daily Tar Heel | agency=United Press International | page=1 | via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news | last=Kovalchik | first=Kara | date=April 8, 2015 | url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/62876/10-aspects-old-telephones-might-confuse-younger-readers | title=10 Aspects of Old Telephones That Might Confuse Young People | work=Mental Floss | publisher=Minute Media | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150411150406/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/62876/10-aspects-old-telephones-might-confuse-younger-readers | archivedate=April 11, 2015}} The majority of participants were teenagers using these lines to hold informal conversations with strangers in their locality, as well as to collect the phone numbers of potential dates and friends.{{cite news | last=Kunze | first=Nancy | date=May 13, 1962 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-tribune-nancys-notebook/157554334/ | title=Nancy's Notebook | work=The News Tribune | page=A-13 | via=Newspapers.com}} Beep lines were also a popular spot for phone phreaks, or people who deliberately experimented with and explored public telephone networks, during the 1970s.{{rp|C1}}

This phenomenon of impromptu conference calls was known among telephone company workers as early as the early 1950s and was first publicized by the International News Service reporter Emily Belser in 1953.{{cite news | last=Belser | first=Emily | date=November 30, 1953 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/alameda-times-star-movie-matters/157554519/ | title=Movie Matters | work=Alameda Times Star | page=9 | via=Newspapers.com}} In 1961, The Idaho Statesman gave the phenomenon a name: "moondialing".{{cite news | date=March 17, 1961 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-idaho-statesman-electronic-gags-end/123111419/ | title=Electronic Gags End 'Moondialing' Craze | work=Idaho Daily Statesmen | page=24 | via=Newspapers.com}} As central offices did not send answer supervision to busy signals, conversations hosted over these so-called "beep lines" were toll-free in most cases.

A common point of discovery for the beep line back in the 1950s and 1960s were call-in segments of radio programs. As dozens of callers attempted to reach the DJ or talk show host at the same time, many would invariably reach a busy signal, through which they could speak to other shunted callers.{{cite news | last=Merryfield | first=Mary | date=May 13, 1964 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-teens-take-action-to-hal/123079292/ | title=Teens Take Action to Halt Telephone Beeping Sessions | work=Chicago Tribune | page=2A | via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news | last=Sirott | first=Bob | date=April 1, 2010 | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-xpm-2010-03-31-ct-live-0401-beep-line-20100331-story.html | title='Beep line' the start of today's social networking? | work=Chicago Tribune | publisher=Tribune Publishing | page=[https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-beep-line-the-start-of/123079174/ 3-1], [https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-beep-line-the-start-of/123079180/ 3-2] | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108090220/https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-xpm-2010-03-31-ct-live-0401-beep-line-20100331-story.html | archivedate=November 8, 2020 | via=Newspapers.com}}{{rp|3-2}} Another entry point was permanently unavailable numbers or loop-around test numbers intended for internal use by the telephone company.{{cite news | last=Richardson | first=Cei | date=July 25, 1971 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun-howling-party-line-for/123079333/ | title=Howling Party Line For Teen-Agers | work=The Baltimore Sun | page=C1 | via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news | date=February 12, 1971 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-news-beep-line/123079324/ | title='Beep Line' | work=The Indianapolis News | page=44 | via=Newspapers.com}}{{Rp|C1}} Such numbers were often spread by word of mouth or published in local teen-oriented weeklies.{{cite book | last=Samors | first=Neal | author-link=Neal Samors | date=2006 | url=https://archive.org/details/chicagoinsixties0000samo/page/29/ | title=Chicago in the Sixties: Remembering a Time of Change | publisher=Chicago's Books | page=26 | isbn=9780978866310 | via=the Internet Archive}} Beep lines proved infectiously popular in the 1960s and 1970s; for example, New England Telephone in 1963 reporting a sharp uptick in busy signal calls in one week (from 1,495 to 27,928) after a beep line number was published in a teen weekly, according to Time magazine.

The pace of conversations hosted over the beep line was often choppy and monosyllabic if the machinery generating the busy tone was particularly loud.{{cite news | last=G. | first=J. | date=March 16, 1965 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-evening-sun-busy-beep-line/123079298/ | title=Busy Beep Line | work=The Evening Sun | page=B1 | via=Newspapers.com}} The number of concurrent callers on beep lines at any given time could number between 30 and 40 or potentially more.{{cite news | last=Moyle | first=Mike | date=November 5, 1963 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/centre-daily-times-boom-lowered-on-beep/123079271/ | title=Boom Lowered on 'Beep Line' | work=Centre Daily Times | page=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/centre-daily-times-boom-lowered-on-beep/123079276/ 8] | via=Newspapers.com}}{{rp|1}} While beep lines were not initially illegal in the United States,{{Efn|In Minneapolis by 1974, misuse of the telephone service became a misdemeanor crime carrying a $500 maximum fine and up to six months in jail, although this was almost never enforced beyond warnings.{{rp|C2}}}} they were frowned upon by the telephone companies because of their potential to overload a main trunk line in a central office, preventing normal telephone service for a given area and potentially leading to outages for critical lines such as hospitals and emergency services.{{rp|1}}{{cite news | last=Clark | first=Steve | date=March 20, 1970 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/dayton-daily-news-beep-line-play-could/123079317/ | title='Beep Line' Play Could Be Fatal | work=Dayton Daily News | page=16 | via=Newspapers.com}} Some measures within central offices to quash beep lines included making the busy tone louder or by increasing the interruptions per minute of the tone—to the chagrin of regular callers who found these new tones obnoxious.{{rp|2}} Other actions included implementing devices within the electromechanical switching equipment, such as resistors, to inhibit the voice path; rerouting the busy signals or loop-around numbers;{{cite news | date=March 25, 1967 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-call-breakfast-chatter/123117404/ | title=Breakfast Chatter | work=The Morning Call | location=Allentown, Pennsylvania | page=3 | via=Newspapers.com}} or by upgrading the central office equipment to electronic switching systems (ESS).{{cite news | date=October 31, 1963 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-honolulu-advertiser-firm-says-beep-l/123079261/ | title=Firm Says Beep Line on Way Out | work=The Honolulu Advertiser | page=B6 | via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news | date=June 23, 1969 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-herald-action-line/123079312/ | title=Action Line | work=The Journal Herald | page=21 | via=Newspapers.com}} These measures were expensive to implement at the time and were often to no avail,{{cite news | last=Goldwyn | first=Ron | date=February 4, 1972 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-herald-beep-beep-whos-the/123079192/ | title=Beep, beep, who's there? | work=The Journal Herald | page=21 | via=Newspapers.com}} as beep line enthusiasts would cycle through secretive beep lines or connect to distant exchanges with older electromechanical switching equipment and talk there.{{cite news | date=May 23, 1968 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-call-breakfast-chatter/123117659/ | title=Breakfast Chatter | work=The Morning Call | location=Allentown, Pennsylvania | page=5 | via=Newspapers.com}}

Beep lines continued into the 1980s in some rural areas but mostly vanished by the mid-1980s as the vast majority of central offices completed the conversion of their equipment to electronic switching systems.{{cite news | agency=Associated Press | date=March 22, 1981 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-oklahoman-busy-phone-signal-do/157536730/ | title=Busy Phone Signal Doesn't Stop Conversations of Lawton Teens | work=The Daily Oklahoman | page=13 | via=Newspapers.com}}

• Party line (telephony)
• Chat line

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• [https://www.evan-doorbell.com/production/#conferences Assortment of beep line recordings] from the 1970s by Evan Doorbell

Category:Telephony

Category:Phreaking