I ran across this video from 1982 where Jane Barbe and John Doyle-Mama and Papa time respectively-were interviewed. Why were they called that? Watch the video and see:



I miss the POPCORN service-something I frequently dialed as a child living in Northern California. Up until AT&T decided to discontinue the service in September 2007, I continued to use it to check the time when a computer wasn't handy.

Of course, if AT&T really wanted to, they could have easily replaced the service with equipment that didn't break down as much as the old Audichron machine did. An Asterisk server synched up with an NTP server could have easily provided the service-complete with Jane Barbe's voice!

Meanwhile, you can still hear Jane Barbe's voice on WWVN at +1 808 335 4363 or on a shortwave radio near you!