Debbie666
Friends
Newest Memory Contributions
Newest Comments
- BT chat lines
Hello, I was the manager and monitor of the first BT Talkabout in Bristol in 1983. The BT new business group had the center of town dug up to lay the lines. We operated 5 banks of 10 lines. Some were the teenage number and the rest adults, no swearing, no giving phone numbers, although to the delight of some night workers on a switch board, they could magically reappear,having been cut off within seconds, to give final digits! It was a total hoot, we used to hold quizzes on line and send, sweatshirts, pens, key rings etc to winners. We also held night events in clubs for meet ups. We also held a tug of war on pontoons in the harbour for charity. We could take an individual caller out of the group for a warning. It was 24 hour service and our busiest times were when the rest of the world were asleep. I made many friends, some I'm still in touch with now. I was even introduced to my late husband by a caller. Once the Bristol office showed such success it expanded to Birmingham, Leeds, etc then 4 centers in London. We had celebratries like, cliff, alias smith and jones, to do voice overs on the introction message, proclaiming, just say no to drugs, remember it was the President Regan era. We also had celebs who were performing at local theatres to talk live to callers for a few hours. The fellow who dressed up as busby, if it was in Bristol, at5 our Busby Smirnoff night, I prob know lol. All monitors used a pretend name. I remember one Christmas we sent out scripts to regulars and had an online panto. Even though we have all sorts of media now, in those days we were all physically talking to one another. Anyway just thought I'd share my memories.