We, the people, I really appreciate your listening. Barbara Fisher, thanks a lot for engineering
and all of you out there. Good night, be with you tomorrow. We're going to talk about, oh,
we're going to talk about the Enola Gay and why the American people are denied the right
to know about the most significant historical event of the 20th century. Good night.
In commemoration of International Women's Month, the 40th anniversary of the independence of Ghana,
and in solidarity with the democratic forces in the Congo Zaire, the Patrice Lumumba Coalition
is issuing a call to all Lumumbas, revolutionaries, working class, oppressed and freedom-loving people
to attend an African International Forum. Generations of resistance against imperialism
in the heart of mother Africa. A rally to support the legacy of Patrice Lumumba and a reception for
his son. Friday, March 7th from 6.30 p.m. until 10 p.m. at the Harriet Tubman Learning Center,
127th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem. Special guests of honor,
Francois Emery Lumumba, president of Congolese National Movement. Special invited guest speakers,
Marcus Garvey Jr., Dr. Betty Shabazz, Kwame Ture, Dr. Wajida Asmeli-Abubakar,
Paola Plummer, Ilunga Kalonzo, Samori Mawson, Kimati Dinizulu, and Ilambe Brands.
For further information, call area code 212-663-3805. That's area code 212-663-3805.
It's eight o'clock. This is WBAI in New York. Coming up next on Off the Hook, New York City in
crisis.
And a very good evening to everybody.
This is Off the Hook, coming to you live from the studios of WBAI in New York City.
New York City, the town that was plunged into a crisis last week with the announcement that
the 212 area code is on the verge of exhaustion.
We'll be discussing what that means, we'll be taking suggestions from you on what we
can do about it, and looking together at the future and what it holds, and how we can get
through this thing together.
But first, a couple of news items of interest.
We talked about the Croatian hackers last week, and we have an official rebuttal from
the U.S. Defense Department.
They've flatly denied a report that high school computer hackers in Croatia broke Pentagon
protection codes and copied highly classified files from U.S. military bases.
They did not.
The Croatian newspaper was in error on that issue.
Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters in response to questions, they have
been neutralized.
They will not bother us again.
Neutralized?
Well, they didn't actually say that, but it was in his eyes.
They did apparently get into some computers at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, but to
the best of my knowledge, they did not get into any classified files.
It was entirely unclassified territory.
Yes, so to the best of his knowledge, they didn't get into any classified...
You gotta read between the lines here.
For all we know, they just hit a website.
To the best of his knowledge, he didn't get into any classified files, but if there aren't
any classified files, how could they even have gotten into them without his knowledge?
He's saying basically that there were classified files there, and he just hopes, he's praying
to whatever God he believes in that they didn't get into them.
This man is very scared.
So he's agreeing that there were files that were classified.
He's admitting that they are totally owned by these Croatian hackers, okay?
The Defense Department is on its knees right now, and I just wonder what the future holds
for this country.
I don't think that the New York City crisis is really gonna measure up to this one.
It's a dark day, that's for sure.
Anyway, he said the matter was being investigated by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigation.
Oh, the OSI, our old friends.
Those are the ones that they can't figure out, those are the special investigations.
But I'm not aware that action has been taken against these fellows, whom I believe are
teenagers at this time.
Well, yeah, at this time, they're teenagers.
Two years, though, it's gonna be a different story.
Yeah, they could be full-grown adults.
Yeah, absolutely.
The Zagreb Daily Unpronounceable said on Wednesday, the three...
Unpronounceable?
I tried last week, and it's just not even worth getting into.
Said on Wednesday, the three high school students surfing the internet on their home computer
applied a search program and deciphered codes barging into the database of several U.S.
military installations.
Have you ever had a database of yours get barged into?
It's rude.
I can't say it's happened, personally.
You should not, before going into a database, especially if it's not yours.
Anyway, the databases included those of the Anderson Nuclear Installation and an unnamed
satellite research center.
So that's the story there, as far as that goes.
What else?
Okay, how about this?
This is kind of funny.
With telephone fraud in the United States costing $3.7 billion a year and rising at
double-digit rates.
Are you aware of this?
Double-digit rates?
Double-digit rates, telephone fraud is rising.
And this is according to whose statistics?
Well, I'm getting to that.
Bell Atlantic today, actually a couple days ago, called on industry rivals nationwide
to band together to develop ways to stop the menace.
In an unprecedented call for cooperation, the company urged all telecommunications carriers
to join the Alliance to Outfox Phone Fraud.
Can you believe they used the word outfox in the name of a company?
The Alliance, and it doesn't even spell anything, A-O-P-F, how do you even say that?
It's not like a clever thing.
The Alliance to Outfox Phone Fraud.
Who thought of that?
Who thought of that?
Come on.
I mean, Madison Avenue would never tolerate something like that.
Definitely.
I mean, you think maybe their logo is like a little fox or something, hunting down phone
freak type people?
Let's hope they used the fox part to their advantage.
Anyway, created three years ago, the Alliance is a broad-based international group of telecommunications
companies and related businesses whose goal is to create consumer awareness about telephone
fraud and its prevention.
Oh, here we go.
Okay.
I was right.
The animated character, Freddy the Phone Fraud Fox.
Freddy the Phone Fraud Fox.
That's amazing.
I should be on the board of directors here, to be able to see that one a mile away.
He serves as the official mascot for the public awareness campaign.
We got to get this letterhead or whatever Freddy the Phone Fraud Fox does.
I want to see this.
Anyway, in addition to Bell Atlantic, Alliance members include the American Public Communications
Council, Bell Corps, Communications Fraud Control Association, Hewlett Packard, Illinois
Consolidated Telephone Company, Intelligence Switched Systems of Canada, 9X, Pacific Bell,
Park Region Mutual Telephone Company, Pennsylvania Telephone Association, Public Service Telephone
Company, and Southwestern Bell.
The Alliance is a key way for the growing number of carriers in the nation to pool their
resources and share information about phone fraud occurrence and tips on prevention.
Phone fraud has gone beyond tumbling, or guessing at wireless phone numbers, to cloning
of wireless phones.
The latest and fastest growing type of fraud is subscription fraud, which affects both
wireline and wireless carriers.
Such fraud can occur when a user provides the carrier with a false address, identification,
or credit rating, and then makes long-distance phone calls on that account.
In other words, they lie.
They say that they're that person, and then they get information, and they get credit
in their name, and things like that.
It's not really having much to do with phones, or phone phreaking, or anything like that.
But anyway, if you want more information about the Alliance, or if you want to join, should
we join?
You can call 1-800-9-OUTFOX.
Oh, come on, let's do it.
You ready?
Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it.
I've got to see what these people are all about.
I wonder if they have a voicemail system.
Got to look at the letters on the phone here.
1-800-9-OUTFOX.
Hi, I'm Freddy.
Thanks for calling the Alliance to outfox phone fraud.
Please let us know how you heard about the Alliance.
Leave your name, address, phone number, and the purpose of your call, and one of my colleagues
will get right back to you.
Hang on, watch this.
Zero.
It's not a valid entry.
Well, let's see what it is.
Hi, I'm Freddy.
Okay.
Thanks for calling the Alliance to outfox phone fraud.
Hi, I'm Freddy.
Thanks for calling the Alliance to outfox phone fraud.
Please let us know how you heard about...
To send your message, press 1.
To re-record your message, press 2.
To review your message, press 3.
For delivery options, press 9.
To cancel your message, press star.
Okay, let's hear it first.
To send your message, press 1.
To re-record your message, press 2.
Let's not send that.
Message canceled.
Okay.
Thank you for calling.
Goodbye.
That's the end of that.
Okay, well, they have a voicemail system, which looks like it could be hours of fun,
but maybe you shouldn't deal with those people as far as playing around voicemail systems.
I don't know, but what do you think it costs to join?
I'd like to outfox them.
It should be free dues, I think.
Free dues?
Yeah.
Okay, sure.
I got news for you.
The people that go around combating phone fraud are the ones that make the most money.
Okay?
And the reason they make money is because people fear the things that they're preaching about.
It's like religion.
It's a lot like religion.
Okay?
You go around.
You're preaching about, you know, Satan and all that kind of thing.
And you are Satan.
Yeah, and you ask for money, and people give you money,
and you go around and, you know, if Satan stopped existing, okay,
these religions would be very upset because they'd have nothing to, you know, raise money against.
Same thing with phone fraud companies.
Whatever they're called.
I don't know.
Just like Satan.
I'm sure I'm going to be getting all kinds of letters about this, but, yeah, well, that's just the way it goes.
Okay, the Dallas Morning News.
You hear about this one?
They scooped themselves, supposedly.
Okay?
They had a story.
They were afraid that if they printed this story that they'd get an injunction from Timothy McVeigh's lawyers saying,
do not print this story about how he confessed.
So what they did was they put it on the World Wide Web.
They put it on their web page saying that they had this particular information.
And then, because it was already on the web, they reported on that.
So they kind of used tactics that we've been using for years as far as getting stories out instantly
and then making that into a story, you know, yourself.
And it's resulted in quite a lot of press, publicity, things like that.
And this story from MSNBC.
The Dallas Morning News joined the company of Kevin Mitnick and Robert Morris on Monday by facing allegations of computer hacking.
But there's a big distinction.
Mitnick, Morris, and others in the Hacker Hall of Fame have been successfully prosecuted by federal authorities for violating laws against computer fraud and abuse.
While Monday's allegations against the Morning News came from a defense lawyer concerned that leaked information was damaging his client's case.
He accused the newspaper of violating three federal statutes by gaining unauthorized access to computer files gathered by the defense team.
He indicated those files were the basis of the newspaper's Friday story, which quoted McVeigh as acknowledging that he planned the bombing that killed 168 people in April 1995.
Now, the Morning News said the documents were notes made by a defense team member during the interview in which McVeigh was quoted as saying he timed the bombing for daylight hours to ensure a higher body count.
Since they are, at best, second-hand notes prepared for the benefit of McVeigh's counsel, they could not be used during the trial.
It's interesting, though, because I'm not really getting a straight story from anybody as to how they got this.
Yeah, where's the hacking?
Well, I guess they got into a computer or something. I'm not sure exactly what they're being accused of.
They could have slipped a floppy in the guy's machine when he was in the toilet.
I suppose. I suppose that's possible. Or the person might not be still working for that particular legal firm.
It's possible.
And maybe he just gave it out that way. But I'm not seeing in either the accusations or the defense just what it is that they did.
They're saying that they got it through legitimate means, but the legitimate means that they can't say what they are.
And meanwhile, the accusations are saying that they hacked into a computer system and got this information, but they can't tell us exactly what they did.
Yeah, that's just the headlines talking.
So basically, we have this headline out there that everybody's interested in, but nobody knows where it came from.
It's kind of wacky.
All right. And let's see. One other thing, and then we'll get on to our main topic of the day.
With the launch of five markets for Sprint PCS in February.
It's February now.
Well, you know, I don't understand, because this is March, and this story came out in March.
Well, I guess, OK, they have already launched.
They've launched, they just haven't launched here.
So they have launched somewhere on the planet.
Yeah. OK, I can tell you where, too.
OK.
Sprint PCS has launched in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Little Rock, Arkansas, Des Moines, Iowa.
Oh, Des Moines.
Yeah, that place.
And the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Somebody must have given them some bad data as to where the customers are.
That's where they're doing business right now.
Aren't they based out of, what was the first city that you said?
Tulsa, Oklahoma City.
They have an office there.
I believe so, yes.
It's Nortel 1900 MHz CDMA PCS networks.
They're serving Sprint PCS subscribers in those areas.
Nortel is building 800 and 1900 MHz CDMA digital wireless networks for such customers as Sprint PCS,
AirTouch, BCTel Mobility, and Bell Mobility, which will ultimately reach more than 16 million potential subscribers in 28 North American cities.
They don't say when they're going to be in New York.
They should have been here by now.
We'll keep looking for them.
Sprint PCS is on the way, and maybe that will lead to some competition.
We hope.
David is back.
You notice he came back from England.
Yeah, there he is.
We sent him there on assignment.
No, we didn't send him there.
We can't send people to the corner, OK?
Don't think that we're sending people around the world.
You were in California on assignment, and you discovered there's no PCS service out there at all.
No, actually, what I did find out is that there is no such thing as Pacific Bell Mobile anymore.
It's now, I think it was AirTouch or something like that.
That's one of the companies I just mentioned.
Right, yeah.
AirTouch.
AirTouch, which I don't know who that is.
They're taking away the regionalism in the names.
Right.
AirTouch.
And no more Pacific anything.
Well, a lot of people in New York have problems writing checks to something that says Pacific.
Yeah.
So AirTouch was no problem at all.
Well, the problem that I had, my problem was twofold.
First problem I had was that since I was a prepaid customer with OmniPoint,
they claimed that I did not have permission to roam as a prepaid customer.
What, they have you on a leash?
So that was a problem.
You're not allowed to go anywhere?
OK, fine.
Well, after six months, I get re-evaluated as a decent paying customer,
and I'll get converted to a regular customer.
OK.
And so I had that going against me.
Then I was told that even if I was able to roam,
that a problem out there that the AirTouch, Pacific Bell Mobile,
whatever you want to call them people were having,
is that the police department in Alameda County are using 1900 megahertz for something or another.
Well, who told them they could do that?
Apparently, they're not doing it with permission.
Well, I mean, that's just rude.
Yeah.
Police barging into 1900 megahertz like that.
It's horrible.
Wow.
Is the real signal indicator on the phone is the police or whether it's AirTouch?
You know how everybody got beeps from crazy places a few weeks ago
because somebody entered the wrong PIN?
You could be getting 911 calls on your PCS phone now.
It would be chaos and mayhem.
That's certainly what it looks like.
David, you're back from England.
What's the PCS situation like over there?
Well, over in England, there's a lot of choices.
There are tons of phones, tons of accessories,
and because of all the competition, there are tons of pricing schemes and strategies.
It works out with the dollar exchange to be somewhat expensive
because over in England, if you want to get a phone or buy a phone to own,
you can get it cheaply if you buy it with a connection service, which can be expensive.
It can run anywhere from $40 a month to $250 a month.
Granted, with the high end, you'll get 540 minutes of what they call free time,
but you are paying for it, but it comes as a package.
How much would something like that cost, 540 free minutes?
$270 American.
That's quite a lot.
It works out when you add up all the tariffs that it's quite expensive.
Now, what I found from one company was that if I wanted to buy the phone that I have from OmniPoint,
which in England would be the Nokia 2110i,
I could get it for $140 if I paid to have it connected right then and there,
and then the phone would be mine through that period of connection, but I couldn't own the phone.
If I wanted to buy the phone outright, it would cost me 405 English pounds,
which would be equivalent to about $760.
That's pretty outrageous.
That's pretty pricey.
What if you already own the phone, though?
What if you go over there now with the phone you now own and say you want to connect to service?
Would you do that?
The phone that I now own is not a hybrid phone, so it only works at 1900 PCS,
which is not going to do anything for me over in England.
Because they're 1800.
Correct.
Now, it's sort of difficult in England to buy a phone without service,
so they sort of ask you when you want to get your phone hooked up,
if you have some sort of receipt of service or receipt for the phone.
But they use the same type of service all throughout Europe, don't they?
All different places.
So, I mean, you could buy something in, say, Bulgaria, right?
And if you do that, then you just bring it over to England and say you lost your receipt.
Well, the beautiful thing is there's so many different stores.
Works at the Wiz, anyway.
You'd have to find a merchant who would be willing to service you,
but they ask a lot of questions.
They're very leery about it.
If you come in with a phone, they start asking half a dozen questions about where you got it,
what services it hooked up on, what the number was.
So they're still in the suspicious mode.
They haven't quite gotten out of that yet.
Well, I found a couple of shops because I found some people who met me over there and took me around.
And what's beautiful about London is there's this one street called Tottenham Court Road.
Ah, yes.
And you just walk down.
It's famously known as TCR.
And you just walk down this one street.
On each side of the street, there's at least a dozen or two dozen stores.
And I was able to go in and out and play one against the other
and get really good prices on accessories that aren't available here.
The bad thing about all different phone systems are that you have to walk around,
like I did, with three different phones for the week strapped to your belt.
Depending on where you are and what part of London, some services work and some don't.
You did notice, though, that more people over there use these phones than here.
Almost every one in three people seems to be using a cellular phone or a PCS phone.
Well, it works out to be cheaper in some instances because they meter all the calls there.
So a local call that spans maybe two or three kilometers,
depending on where you're calling, can cost anywhere from 50p,
which would be about, I don't know, about 85 cents,
up to sometimes a pound, 15.
I mean, there's a wide variance.
I was talking with someone from a regular POTS line to their cell phone.
They asked me to please hang up and dial their landline
because they told me they were getting charged between 50p and a pound a minute.
For you calling them?
Right.
Because I know there are services where you call them and you wind up paying.
They don't pay.
Right.
The thing is, there's no uniform structure.
In some cases, you'll get free weekends.
You'll get some special deals, but that's not a regular occurrence.
So you have to shop around quite a bit.
There's at least five or six different systems out there.
And what's nice is there's a magazine called What Mobile,
which publishes a two-page spread of all the different tariffs
that tells you how much each phone call is going to cost you.
And there's one, two, three, four.
There are eight different services ranging from CDMA to PCS to GSM
to analog to a hybrid analog and digital.
Basically, they're ahead of us, aren't they?
Yeah.
As far as all this kind of thing goes.
It gets really quite confusing.
Yeah.
What's easy about here in New York City is it's OmniPoint.
I guess so.
It's OmniPoint.
Well, I've shown you the Bell South rates that I talked about last week.
I still think that nothing beats those.
Well, Mark and I were talking about this earlier.
Bell South is a phone company, so they get to get around a couple of things.
They don't have to pay themselves tariffs to connect to landlines.
Well, aren't there certain things in effect to prevent a company
from having an unfair advantage like a phone company?
Not in their case.
I don't know.
I'm not aware of another company in Bell South area trying to compete
and not being able to because Bell South has an unfair advantage.
Well, I don't think it's a question of not being able to.
I think anybody is equally allowed to.
The thing is that why bother?
If what you say is true, why isn't 9X in the business of this?
Locally?
Yeah.
I mean, it sounds like they could have the market to themselves.
Yeah, but I think that kind of goes without saying.
Yeah, but they're not doing anything.
No.
Well, it's Bell Atlantic 9X Mobile.
Okay.
Well, whatever they're called.
I think the thing you should remember is that the Bell Atlantic comes first.
I don't think 9X is very much saying that.
But there are competitors in Bell Atlantic.
Bell Atlantic 9X Mobile itself does not offer any sort of GSM service.
Are they planning to?
I haven't heard any word that they are even planning to.
There's a company in the D.C. Virginia area which does.
I think the name of it was APC or something like that.
And they offer GSM service.
And just to wrap this up because we've got to get on to the crisis that's facing New York City.
Right.
AT&T, their PCS service is not really PCS service.
No.
It's a PCS-like service.
Okay.
What AT&T is offering is PCS-like features over the existing digital cellular network.
Okay.
In 25 words or less, why should that matter to anybody using the service whether it's PCS or PCS-like?
Well, number one is you're not using the handy-dandy little SIM cards, the little smart cards in the phone.
Right.
It's digital cordless with PCS features.
So you have these custom calling features like I'm assuming like email and things like that.
Station-to-station messages that you'd expect from a GSM phone.
Only it's on a regular old-fashioned digital cellular phone.
Okay.
Not GSM.
Okay.
The other thing is that you don't have the expectation of privacy that you have with GSM.
There isn't any kind of black box cryptography going on with digital cellular.
It's digital.
You can't listen in on it though, can you?
What, digital cellular?
Yes.
You simply need a little more expensive equipment.
Okay.
Well, we'll get details on what that equipment is.
Yes, we've got to get into this other story.
I don't want to spend all the time on this.
Just one last thing.
Yes.
Because of a lot of the fraud that's been taking place, they've now stopped in England
taking online registration on the actual phone itself for accounts.
Oh, good for them.
I wouldn't have ever taken that.
That's, you know, just today I got mail from some, I won't mention the company.
I really don't.
I got mail today in a U.S. mail from some company billing me for a couple hundred bucks
for software and it gave all the information.
All the information was fake that whoever this person typed in, typed in.
And the phone numbers were 555 numbers.
The zip codes were like, they had letters in them.
It's so obvious that it's wrong, but they just have this web registration thing going on
and they just accept any data whatsoever and blindly send it out to whoever asks for it.
So you got to wonder, you know, do these companies, can they really qualify as victims of anybody
but themselves?
I don't know.
Okay, let's get to the main thrust of today's show, which is the crisis facing New York City
that was announced last week.
And that is that, friends, we are running out of room in the 212 area because some of you
apparently have been hogging numbers and now we all have to pay the piper because of that.
To quote from the New York Times article in the Life Gets More Complicated department,
that by the end of next year, some Manhattanites could lose area code 212
and that all of them, all of us, may well have to dial 11 digits to reach our friends uptown,
around the block next door, or even upstairs.
They're going to bring in a new area code, 646.
That's right, 646.
Well, that's one of the plans.
There's a couple of different plans.
But the main plan is to bring in 646 and have some sort of geographically recognizable boundary.
Some people are saying 42nd Street.
Some people are saying 5th Avenue.
Some people are saying 125th Street.
Now the problem with 125th Street is that that's only going to buy us a little bit of time.
There's one plan that says, okay, forget about 646.
Make everybody above 125th Street 718.
And, you know, let them join the Bronx and Queens and Brooklyn and Staten Island.
So that would get rid of the need for 646, but that would only buy us about a year before 212 runs out of space.
Now, here's another option.
The other option is that all new service would be given 646.
So if you get a new telephone, you have 646 area code,
even if you're in the same house as a 212 number.
The advantage to this option is that no current 9X customers in Manhattan would have to change their numbers.
The new code could be applied to all new lines, including cellular phones and pagers, which are currently assigned 917 area codes.
And it could accommodate new customers for up to six and a half years, according to 9X.
Now, here's the weird thing.
Okay, the catch to that is some FCC regulation, which I don't understand the reason behind.
Maybe you could explain this to me.
That says anyone in a region where an area code overlay exists.
Overlay is what we just described, where there's two area codes in the same area.
They are required to dial the area code for all local calls.
In other words, to ensure equal inconvenience to all.
That's what they say here.
To ensure equal inconvenience to all, everyone in Manhattan would have to dial one and then the area code and then the number,
even when calling to a 212 area code from a 212 area code.
I don't know that that's necessarily true.
We have an overlay area code, even though it's not physically anywhere.
That's not an overlay.
That's not considered an overlay.
They don't consider 917 overlay.
I don't think so.
That's some other kind.
There's another term for it.
But overlay is when there's two equal types of area codes in the same area.
And that everybody that has a new number in that area gets the new area code.
The only time I've ever heard of where you actually had to dial one plus the area code you were in, in order to reach somebody,
was in certain places, mainly further out west, where an area code spans beyond the ladder borders.
So say, for example, there's two different regions, two different regional calling areas with two different rate structures.
You have the same area code.
If you're in the first ladder, you can call anybody you want just by dialing seven digits.
If you're trying to call somebody in the other ladder, even though it's the same area code,
you need the one plus the same area code to indicate that it's a toll call.
Right.
Right.
That's mostly to get around their archaic equipment.
Right.
So that they know how to charge you and things like that.
Yeah.
Well, in the past four years, the demand for numbers in the 212 area code has more than tripled, according to 9X Executive Vice President.
But it's not just a local phenomenon.
States like Connecticut, Arizona, once area code unified, they had the same area code for the entire state, have recently been divided.
It's estimated by 2025, the entire country will likely run out of numbers and the phone system will have to be remapped according to some other plan.
Say, eight-digit local numbers instead of seven.
Now, you see, that's what I think they should have done for this particular crisis, before this ever happened.
Like, last year, they expanded the area codes to not have one or zero in the middle.
Right.
All right.
Confused everybody.
You know, nobody knows where anything is anymore.
What?
320, that's Minnesota.
732, that's going to be part of New Jersey.
Yeah, we're going to remember that.
Sure.
And 646, I don't see how people are going to be able to remember 646, you know, even within Manhattan.
What they should have done is added a couple of numbers to the local numbers, okay?
Since we already have this bizarre phone system which doesn't really match anything else in the world,
I think just adding a number or two would have created so many new possibilities that we wouldn't have had to, you know, get any area codes.
The problem with that is that it's not downward compatible.
Uh-huh.
It's not downward compatible to the older switching systems that might exist.
Why is it that we seem to always be crippled by the capacity of these older systems?
Well, why is Windows 95 still compatible with DOS?
Don't get me started on that.
That's the way it is, I guess.
Yeah.
We'd like to know from our listeners how they think this particular problem should be dealt with.
How do you feel?
Would you be comfortable in 646?
Do you think the dividing line should be someplace?
Are there other suggestions that you might have?
I can hardly wait to hear what Rebel comes up with.
Well, we should just clarify, though, that by Bellcore's projections...
Right.
...212 is not going to be exhausted until the fourth quarter of 1999.
So it's not like this is going to happen tomorrow.
They're saying 1998 they're going to do this.
According to Bellcore's website, which I visited this evening, it said a fourth quarter 1999, they expected it.
Well, Ninex says at the end of 1998 or the beginning of 1999, Manhattan will run out of phone numbers.
Oh, we'll see who's right.
Now, you used to be part of 212.
I used to be a long time ago.
When I lived in Queens, it was in the early 80s, they created 718.
And they gave us all buttons to try to make us feel better.
In the mail, it said, I am a 718.
It's not long distance.
That's what all the buttons said.
Wow.
But it did hurt, didn't it?
Yeah, it was, you know, all the stickers on all the phones had to be changed that said 212.
You know, it was chaos and mayhem.
But I mean, the social stigma, you weren't really considered the same...
We weren't part of the city anymore.
...as 212.
Yeah.
You were looked down upon.
We were merely bridge and tunnel people.
People across the country knew that you weren't really in Manhattan...
Yeah.
...because you were 718.
And the Bronx was 212 for a while, and then...
Yep, then they got moved.
And they got moved as well.
Yeah.
So, this is not something that is to be taken lightly.
No, but at least 718 looks like an area code.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, it does.
718 does.
646.
I don't know off the top of my head, but we got to find out where in Manhattan 6466 change is.
Because those are the people that are going to get all the prank calls.
We can find out right now, I guess.
Yeah.
Let's see if we can get them online.
Okay, we can't get a line there.
Let's try that again.
Okay.
We dial 646.
And then 9901.
That should tell us where it is.
We're sorry.
The number you have reached is not in service.
Uh-oh.
Please check the number and dial again.
You know, that's what I thought it was.
Yeah.
That's like a beeper.
But what's it doing in area code 212?
I don't know.
I think we just found an illegal beeper service.
Yeah, well...
It's supposed to be in 917, not in 212.
They should have all been moved by now.
Yeah, because of things like that.
Might be a couple of stragglers.
Yeah, because of things like that that we ran out of phone numbers in the first place.
Yeah.
Well, anyway.
Okay, so...
646.
Do you think that's the best choice they could have come up with?
I don't.
I think they could have come up with something much better.
No, I don't...
I didn't actually look over the list of what's still available.
Who is it that decides?
Who says 646 is what Manhattan gets?
The North American Numbering Plan Association.
Yeah, but who there is the person that says 646?
Oh, the one single person?
There's got to be somebody that comes up with it.
It must be somebody at Bellcore says, you know, how about this?
And 9X says, we don't like that.
How about this?
Okay, is the area code...
What is it?
6-9-2.
Is that taken?
I don't know.
It spells NYC.
6-9-2.
Easy.
It's probably taken.
NYC, seven digits.
It's like a good domain on the internet.
It's probably taken.
What, do you think it's a 6-9-2 area code someplace?
Could very well be.
I don't think so.
Try information.
Well, information charges money, so I'm going to try the operator.
Okay.
Okay, hold on.
Actually, you know, I think the operator has this scam going where they connect you
to information when you ask a question like this.
Let's find out.
This is weird.
I think we'll get a human.
You know you'll get a human when they don't answer.
Christine, may I help you?
Yes, hi.
Can you tell me where the area code 6-9-2 is?
Okay.
We can connect you directly.
They can tell you that if you'd like.
Okay.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Hold on.
I see what's going on here.
9-X?
Yes, hi.
Is this information?
Yes, it is.
I'm looking to know where the area code 6-9-2 is.
6-9-2.
One moment, please.
Thank you very much.
It's not an area code.
It's not an area code?
No, it's an exchange in one of the, it's either in Long Island or in Manhattan, but it's not
an area code.
Okay.
While I have you, can you tell me if 6-4-6 is an exchange in New York?
Hold on, please.
Thank you.
6-4-6 is an exchange in downtown Manhattan.
It's in downtown Manhattan.
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome, sir.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Well, that was one of my more profitable calls with information.
Okay.
So, 6-9, what is it, 6-9-2?
Yeah.
I mean, that's just a thought, but there might be better ones out there.
I think our listeners might have some suggestions.
2-1-2, 2-7-9, 3-4-100 is our phone number, but for how long?
Should I say 6-4-6?
I can't even say it.
It doesn't feel right.
It sounds confusing.
It's like saying President Reagan.
It just never quite caught with me.
You'll have to start saying 1-plus so people know, like, when you're done saying the number.
And that's the other thing.
With all these crazy area codes and 10-digit dialing, why do we even need 1-plus anymore?
People come here from other countries, right, and we give them phone numbers.
We give them phone numbers in area codes, in parentheses, rather, area codes in parentheses,
and we don't tell them that they have to dial a 1 first.
Do you know how confused they get?
I've seen people in tears at airports trying to figure it out.
You know, they're at Kennedy Airport.
They're trying to call somebody in 2-1-2, and they just never get it
because they don't think they have to dial the country code before, which is what it is.
Yeah.
One is the country code.
They have to dial that before the area code to get through.
So it's quite crazy.
We're going to go to the phones.
David, do you have something?
Yeah, there was a segment on television over the weekend about this,
and they had a Bell Atlantic spokesperson on saying that in some parts of Jersey,
it may work out that people would have to dial 2 area codes because of overlays to dial a local number.
Now, what's funny was Bell Atlantic was saying this, yet they had, right afterwards,
someone from 9X in one of their control rooms saying that,
no, no, no, this is all scare tactics, you know, by other RBOCs.
What do you mean dial 2 area codes?
Why would you have to dial 2 area codes?
Because they said that the way they were doing these overlays,
they had people in the beginning would have to dial, for example,
let's say the area code was 343 and 646.
They'd have to dial 343, 646, then the phone number.
And they started to have these posters up and billboards from Bell Atlantic
talking about, you know, 10-digit phone numbers.
Hey, your combination lock for your gym locker, you know, is more confusing than that.
And this is the actual billboards that are going up about it.
I think some sort of aliens have invaded these people's minds,
that they're just trying to bring down the whole system,
because I can't imagine dialing more than one area code to get through to something.
I mean, carrier access codes are now seven digits.
That sounds like a confused spokesperson.
It sure does. They should be reassigned.
Let's go to the phones. 212-279-3400.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hello.
Yeah, speak up.
Oh, boy, I don't know where to start.
There are four people at Bell Corp who decide on new area codes.
There were formerly five, four now.
They're called, logically enough, numbering plan administrators.
By the way, do you have a copy of New York Telephone Company,
that's still their legal name,
report to the Public Service Commission in case 96C-1158
on the upcoming split of the 212 area code?
58, you say?
96C-1158.
No, I don't have 58 here.
Tell us what's in that one.
I should call Mr. Jerome M. Balsam's office on 212-395-6507
and ask his secretary for a copy of it.
Well, have you seen it?
I have it in front of me.
What's contained within it?
Well, it goes, let's see, conservation procedures,
alternatives, geographic split options,
including the northern Manhattan geographic split.
That would be, let's see, that would be, hold on.
That would be, sorry.
You think he really has it?
Um, there's a possibility.
Could be the phone book he's flipping there.
No, no.
Okay, come on.
That, uh, okay, wait a minute.
Four, wait a minute.
Section, I should have just done it by page number.
Okay.
Oops, I'm sorry.
I think this is a Bell Atlantic toy to keep us from discussing.
Okay.
Northern Manhattan geographic split.
That would have been roughly corresponding to 59th Street,
but they also tell how, uh,
what an incredibly complicated and inconvenient thing that would be.
Mm-hmm.
Because while they would have to give something like, uh,
a single street that everyone would know as a major divider,
like 59th or in one of the other proposals,
42nd, that's a Midtown geographic split.
The next little chapter here, subchapter, um,
that the central office lines are not divided along.
Right.
Whereas on Fifth Avenue,
apparently does divide a lot of them east to west anyway.
So the Northern Manhattan geographic split is roughly along 59th.
The Midtown geographic split would be roughly along 42nd.
The Southern geographic split.
Southern.
Hold on.
I think that's a long, roughly canal.
Give me a second.
Well, everyone's south of canal.
We'll stay in two and two and everybody else will change.
Well, not quite.
Wait a minute.
Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh.
For section 4.1.3,
Southern Manhattan geographic split alternative.
This alternative would also split Manhattan into North and South
geographic area codes.
The Southern MPA numbering plan area serving area that we got a new
area code would extend from some tip of Manhattan at the battery
North Canal Street.
Hold on.
The Northern area would extend from Canal Street through the
northern tip of the island.
Boy, talk about the tiniest territory area of any area code in
North America.
Okay.
That's all pretty small.
This alternative would provide the Southern Manhattan financial
community and government.
Well,
government offices with a different area code from the rest of
Manhattan.
The Southern Manhattan composed of three central offices,
including Pearl Street.
I guess that means it's really two buildings and the World Trade
Center and also parts of the Varick Street Central office.
Let me just ask you quickly,
because we want to get through some more phone calls,
but does New York Telephone or 9X or whatever,
do they come up with a preference of a particular plan?
They do.
Recommendation section 5.
But first,
let me just quickly,
the Manhattan L geographic split,
which is 4.1.5.
Oh, okay.
4.1.4 is the East West along Fifth Avenue.
Hold on.
Central.
Northmost tip of Manhattan.
Well,
it's of course,
it can't be the northernmost tip of Manhattan on Fifth Avenue.
It's northern end is about 135th Street.
But anyway,
it would run from the Harlem River in 135th down Fifth Avenue to
Central Park.
It would continue to Washington Square,
then down West Broadway to Canal.
At Canal,
it would turn right over.
Oh,
yeah,
this is great.
I can remember all this.
To the Hudson River.
Well,
to the West Broadway.
She called this the magic bullet.
And Canal.
Okay.
Now that's,
that's the,
that was the 4.1.4.
That was the East West.
The L.
Okay.
This one,
this would establish an L-shaped split from Manhattan.
It would use a boundary line running from the Hudson River,
East along Columbus.
Now this is crazy because Columbus Avenue runs North and South.
So I don't know.
East along Columbus Avenue to the North.
They mean from the Hudson River.
Okay.
Well,
the Northeast corner of Central Park,
the boundary would turn and continue South along Fifth Avenue to 23rd,
where it would turn East toward the East River.
The new area.
All right,
sir,
this is fascinating,
but we're running out of time.
I just got to ask you,
which one do they prefer?
They prefer the only logical one.
I have to agree with them.
Recommendation,
section five,
page 10.
Give me a second here.
By the way,
you may remember back for the September 1st,
1984 split of,
between 212 and 718,
that they proposed having everybody dial eight digits.
And I don't know.
If you were calling from other parts of the country,
you would still have dialed 212 plus seven digits or 718 plus seven digits.
But within the five boroughs,
if you had a 212 code,
you would have dialed the third digit of that.
That is the second two plus the seven digit Manhattan number.
And if you were in the other four boroughs,
you would have dialed the eight of the 718 plus seven digits.
See how that works?
Well, that saves you a couple of numbers from within,
but it doesn't solve anything as far as the area could run out of numbers.
Why don't we respond to why do we need the one?
Once everybody is dialing three plus seven digits for all numbers,
we won't need the one.
Then we won't need it.
Right.
I cannot understand your objection to giving up the zero or one in the middle.
There was no other possible way to go.
By the way,
cities all around the world are going to eight digits.
London, as you know.
Right.
It's going to go zero to zero plus eight digits.
I just think we're seeing way too many splits,
and I think it could have been dealt with a lot more uniformly.
I'm sorry.
The average moron cannot handle more than seven digits.
Well, I don't know.
That's why.
We'll have to ask some average morons.
Listen, we have to move on.
I'm sorry.
We have to get on to some more phone calls because we only have 15 minutes left.
Okay.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Go ahead.
Speak up.
Okay.
You got to speak up, folks.
That's the rule here.
Okay.
Put your ear on your phone,
and when you hear my voice,
that's when you start speaking.
Okay.
It's very simple.
The phone is ringing until we pick it up.
All right.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
Very good.
What's up?
I'm calling to find out,
what is the number to make your phone ring in New Jersey in the 201 area code?
I don't know New Jersey off the top of my head.
I think it's 660 plus last four or last seven digits.
That's what it is in many places.
They might not.
We'll need some input from some New Jersey people.
Okay.
Thanks.
All right.
New Jersey people,
I know this doesn't affect you at all,
and you may think it's kind of,
you know,
comical for us to be struggling with this here in New York City.
So, you know,
if you have something to say about it,
give us a call.
But, please,
we're talking about,
you know,
the crisis facing New York City with the 212 split.
I think one solution.
I have two solutions.
All right.
One is to simply swap 212 and 718.
Okay.
That would preserve 212 and keep it in the hands of New Yorkers.
All right.
So everybody in 718 gets a 212 number like they had back in the old days.
All right.
And then 718 has to worry about exhaustion and all that,
which nobody really cares about.
All right.
The other solution,
and I think this is something NYNEX should pay strict attention to.
Okay.
You pay your bill late.
All right.
You pay your phone bill late.
Your number gets turned into a 646 number.
All right.
That could work.
Yeah,
that could work really good.
Not only do you label the people with this big scarlet 646 on their phone bill,
but you wind up getting better payment schedules
from those people that want to preserve their 212 number.
More money coming in,
more honorable people.
You know where the dishonorable people live.
What about rebellion?
Rebellions,
you know,
that happens occasionally.
You've got to deal with that.
People start printing up T-shirts.
It's just a thought.
I think it's a lot better than that L-shaped thing going on.
That wasn't even an L.
Were you following this geography?
It was just like a squiggle.
It was like a scar is what it was.
Yeah.
All right.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Now,
you see,
you didn't follow the rules,
all right?
Come on.
Why is it so hard?
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello.
I have two things.
Yes.
One is it's kind of disgusting that,
you know,
the phone company is,
you know,
they're complaining that it's not downgradable with,
you know,
this is a phone service being able to have eight digits.
No,
I'm claiming that because it's true.
That's completely disgusting.
That's disgusting that they can't afford to upgrade their service,
you know,
to help their customers,
you know,
because,
you know,
to help them,
to help us,
as far as customers,
and give us easier access to the phone system,
they don't want to upgrade their system.
You see,
in virtually every other country in the world,
it works differently.
Phone numbers are variable length,
and it might sound confusing,
but what it boils down to is that if you live in a small town,
you dial four numbers,
and you have a longer city code.
So you wind up dialing the same number of numbers from outside the area,
but it's divided up.
A four-digit city code is a small town.
A two-digit city code is a big town,
and they have longer phone numbers.
Well,
when I lived upstate,
we had a call,
like,
we had to dial one before just the local exchange of the next town over,
and they just ended that,
like,
two years ago.
Yeah.
But,
you know,
it's just,
I'm saying,
like,
you know,
they can't afford to change the system,
but we're going to end up having to change it anyway in the future,
and it's going to cost more money,
because then it has to be done.
What would you like to see happen in this case?
I'd like to see one or two extra digits on every local phone number,
you know,
and keep the area codes,
but,
you know,
then we have,
like,
it's like what they're doing with the IP addresses.
They're adding,
you know,
they're upgrading the IP addresses,
so you have more numbers on the end.
How are they upgrading the IP addresses?
They're coming out with IP version 6.
Yeah.
Okay.
And what will that mean to us?
Well,
you'll have,
you'll have a longer address space than 32 bits.
What do they say?
There's,
like,
a trillion,
or I don't remember how many actual digits it comes out to,
but there's,
like,
a trillion different combinations or something.
Well,
the biggest problem with the current system
and the biggest problem with the current IP,
which is version 4,
is that,
Jesus,
somebody's trying to call me.
I'll unplug that thing.
Yeah.
The biggest problem with IP version 4,
the current version,
is that when the net first came online,
you know,
back in the late 60s,
early 70s,
they,
they assigned a lot of class A addresses,
which were addresses basically where the first number of the 4 was significant,
and the last 3 was not.
So,
they,
like,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they were,
they wasted a hell of a lot of addresses early on.
Okay.
So we're getting into the wrong crisis here.
Yeah.
Different crisis.
We'll save the IP crisis for another time.
But thanks for the call.
Let's,
continue talking about 2.1.2
and the problems that we face.
Good evening,
you're on the air.
Speak up.
Okay,
I'd love hearing my voice,
but,
not over the radio.
Good evening,
you're on the air.
Hi,
I,
I just wanted to talk about how,
maybe they should just add a number to the area code
instead of adding numbers in the X's?
That is an idea.
Four-digit area codes.
2, 2, and then 2, 1, 2, 1.
That is something.
I remember somebody suggesting that a few years ago.
What's so hard about that?
You add a 2 to every area code.
Yeah, something like that.
I think that would be a great idea.
That would probably be easier.
I mean, imagine if they had done that before they allowed
all the other digits inside.
You'd be able to easily tell an area code.
It'd be, say, 2, 7, 1, 8, 2, 2, 1, 2,
and then you make 2, 2, 1, 3, or whatever, or 3, 2, 1, 2.
Yeah, OK, this is how it works.
You add that 2 to the beginning of the area code, 2, 2, 1, 2.
Then 2, 1, 2 runs out of numbers.
You have 3, 2, 1, 2, then 4, 2, 1, 2, et cetera, et cetera.
You always know 2, 1, 2 because it's always
following that first digit.
And you could preserve everything.
But it's too late now because they already broke it.
How did they break it?
By splitting all these.
They have 7, 3, 2 in New Jersey now.
And you got, what, 8, 6, 0 in Connecticut.
And all these numbers, 9, 5, 4 in Florida.
Nobody can remember that.
But would it be possible with the existing equipment
to do that?
What, to have more than three digit area code?
Yeah.
Yeah, that should be possible.
That would be a lot easier to do.
OK.
But that affects everybody in the country.
But I think it's better to affect everybody
in the country once rather than affect everybody ongoing
forever on these little tiny splits.
Well, in the same way, if you make an eight digit phone
number, it affects everybody in the country.
That's true.
Same way.
You got to add a digit somewhere eventually.
That's true.
And so long as they can do it without adding numbers
to the number.
I mean, like.
Well, is it a harder matter to add numbers
to the actual phone number to make it
eight digits instead of seven?
Or to make area codes four digits instead of three?
If you're going to talk about areas that are still using
older switching equipment?
Uh-huh.
That stuff, like, with the eight digit,
they'd have to change all those, right?
Yeah, that would be just something that isn't feasible.
Because the way that the older switching equipment works
is that you have thousands, you have hundreds, you have tens,
and then you have ones.
The way that the call actually gets
switched in the last four digits.
When we're talking about older switching equipment,
what are we talking about?
I'm talking about, like, pre-electronic.
I'm talking about, like, crossbars and stuff.
How many people are still on crossbars?
There's still lots of rural areas out there.
These rural people, they're dragging us back.
Yeah.
I should be careful.
Our show gets out to them now.
We love you guys, you farmers out there.
Yeah.
Wouldn't be anywhere without you.
OK, 212-279-3400.
Good evening, you're on the air.
OK, all right.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Yes, go ahead.
Yeah, I wanted to ask about the area code,
the demo code that they're having right now.
Why don't they just split up the reasons who's using what?
Like, pagers are 917 along with cellular phones.
Well, they did that already.
Yeah, and like, let's say, modem lines, like PC lines,
and all that, separate that in one section,
and PCS on another area code.
Well, PCS is on another area code.
917 isn't in danger of splitting.
Not right now, anyway.
The only thing I could think of them splitting
is business and residential.
They could do that, I suppose.
Yeah, you know, because that's the reason why
we're losing the numbers, is everybody
getting a phone for some piece of hardware on their table.
Right.
Yeah, and another thing, one question.
A friend of mine has been somehow scammed
on his long distance.
Like, when he had somebody run up like $1,000 in one day
on his long distance, on one call,
in one minute of a particular time,
there was like three different calls at the same time,
or something like that.
Right.
Is that like somebody actually hardwired taps
into the basement of your building,
or is that like somebody hacks into the computer system
and bills you?
It depends how the call shows up.
I mean, if it's a calling card, obviously,
they don't have to be on the premises.
It could be anywhere.
There's all kinds of ways of making
it seem like a call emanated from a particular location
without actually being there, or even being hardwired in.
I think it should be a pretty easy matter
to prove that the person didn't do this
since they began at the same time
or occurred during the same time.
Thanks for the call.
We're going to move on to some more people,
hopefully, dealing with the 212 crisis.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hello.
Hi.
I was just veering off the topic a little bit
with the IP addresses.
OK, don't veer too much here.
Just real quick.
The thing is, a lot of people are registering huge networks,
and they only have one computer on.
All these commercial companies, they
have separate class C networks for each product they have.
Like, you have beer companies, Miller,
and then you have another network for Miller Light.
And that's wasting a lot of addresses right there.
Because you can probably get one network and separate it
into all the products.
When they have the web pages and everything,
they just take up a network of IP addresses
for each product they have.
And that's wasting, like, thousands right there.
I think you're kind of confusing it
with somebody registering a domain name for every product
they have, which has nothing to do with allocating IP addresses.
Yeah, well, if you have, well, in the name server,
I think it wants a separate domain
is allocated per network, where inside the name server,
you have to give the domain the network.
I've never really set up a name server by hand,
but I think I've read that somewhere,
that to set up a name server for the domain,
you'd need to allocate an entire network.
No, you don't.
OK, I guess that wraps that up.
We'll have to talk about this some other time,
because this is not the topic for tonight.
Good evening, you're on the air.
OK, that's wonderful to hear that.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hi.
How are you doing?
I'm all right.
Sounds like you're in a car.
I am.
I just turned the radio down, because I couldn't hear.
646 is an exchange in Brooklyn, in Sheepshead Bay,
and Brighton Beach, and that's Nightingale.
That's what the old determination was.
Oh, really?
Yeah, and I grew up with it, so I know that.
Same with, there's also Dewey, too.
So it doesn't make any sense why they picked 646.
Well, it's N-I-N for nine-inch nails.
Maybe that's got something to do with it.
Your show is great.
I've been listening to you for the longest time.
Well, thanks.
Do you have any suggestions as to how
we can get past this crisis?
I think that your idea to add the additional number
at the beginning of the area code is the way out.
I don't understand why they didn't do that in the first
place.
If you go down to, say, Mexico, that's the type of area code
that they have.
Or you add a number at the end of the area code.
That actually, that sounds better,
because any 212, it's always beginning.
Well, I like your 212, 2212, 3212, 4212.
Something similar, yeah.
And that they screwed everybody up with the 718
to move that into Brooklyn.
And now they screwed up again with Bronx and Queens.
But keep up the great show.
All right, well, listen, thanks for calling.
The content is great, always.
All right, take care, then.
Take care, Mario.
Bye-bye.
All right, well, obviously, the issue still
has much to be discussed.
And I think if we start a movement,
we maybe can get these four-digit area codes.
I think that's kind of a cool idea.
And it was one of my ideas.
Well, actually, a listener called in with similar ideas.
But you thought of it first.
Well, I thought of it a few years ago.
And I remember other people talking about it a few years
ago, and it just never seemed to go anywhere.
I don't know why.
But it would be a lot easier.
Like, instead of having 888, you have 801, 802, 803.
You just have all these different area codes,
and they're all 800.
So you know they're all tall.
Yeah, but what do they do in, like, the year 3025
when they run out of phone numbers?
I don't really care.
But we're out of time, so we'll have to discuss that next week.
We'll see you then.
Good night.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse, but if it could,
they would for Billy Bond, for the best expected worth.
I hope that's understood, for Billy Bond.
I hope that's understood, for Billy Bond.
I hope that's understood, for Billy Bond.
Oh, Medi-Band.
In commemoration of International Women's Month,
the 40th anniversary of the independence of Ghana,
and in solidarity with the democratic forces
in the Congo Zaire,
the Patrice Lumumba Coalition is issuing
a call to all Lumumbas,
revolutionaries, working class, oppressed
and freedom-loving people,
to attend an African International Forum.
Generations of resistance against imperialism
in the heart of Mother Africa.
A rally to support the legacy of Patrice Lumumba
and a reception for his son.
Friday, March 7th, from 6.30pm until 10pm
at the Harriet Tubman Learning Center,
127th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
Boulevard in Harlem.
Francois Emery Lumumba,
President of the Congolese National Movement.
Special invited guest speakers,
Marcus Garvey Jr., Dr. Billy Shabazz,
Kwame Ture, Dr. Wajida Esmaili-Abubakar,
Faola Plummer, Ilunga Kalanzo,
Samori Markson, Kimati Dinizulu,
and Ilambe Brands.
For further information, call area code
212-663-3805.
That's area code 212-663-3805.
And you are tuned to listen to sponsored WBAI-FM in New York City.
The time now is 9 o'clock.
Coming up, Housing Notebook.