New Payphone Sounds

I added a few new audio tracks to my collection of Payphone Sounds, a series which presently comprises a mere 18 soundfiles. I have quite a few more recordings that I am yet to share.

This is probably the only time you will ever hear an automated payphone voice asking for deposits in amounts like 95¢, 65¢, 45¢, and other odd values. This is because I paid for a $1 call using nickels. Unfortunately you cannot hear the sound of the coins being deposited, or the barfing noise made by the payphone when it regurgitated 20 nickels (after all that work depositing the coins it turns out I mis-dialed the number).

Click to listen: Please deposit $1, 95¢, 90¢ …

I have been hunting for variations on the automated message heard by callers trying to reach toll-free numbers from payphones. Toll-free numbers are mostly unreachable from payphones on account of FCC-mandated dialaround compensation and other fees charged to the owners of the numbers.

This serious-sounding woman helpfully (and accurately) blames this disenfranchisment on “the current holder of the number.”

Click to listen: Payphone calls blocked “as requested by the current holder of the number.”

Another woman’s voice (in a tone which sounds sarcastic to me) offers an apology before suggesting that an operator might provide assistance. Would an operator’s intervention connect calls to toll-free numbers from blocked payphones? Maybe I will try that.

Click to listen: “I am sorry…”

The third message ends with a mysterious code: NY2-RDD. What does it mean?

Click to listen: NY2-RDD

Last but far from least is this track borrowed from sorabji.com, in turn hijacked from Sorabji.MOBI: It’s a kickass brass band as heard through a payphone. I’ve listened to this over and over and find repeated fascination in hearing good music muffled by the rugged, monochrome sound of the landline:

Click to listen: Music through the landline.

I have more Payphone Sounds in the hopper, waiting to be posted, so stay tuned.