Another date between June 1982 and June 2000 in The Book Book
- Feb. 22, 2014, 8:29 p.m.
- |
- Public
October 1, 1986
Publication date September 30, 1986
Notes from the Cadillac Ranch
One of the minor areas of creativity open to modern society is the telephone answering machine . It allows us to become very minor radio producers and performers.
Developing a message that will fit the set number of seconds for the out-going message is a challenge. Devising a welcoming, non-offensive, semi-cute message that will encourage callers to speak to the tape recorder is not easy.
There is a tendency to beg or sound too flippant. If you think how your message will sound to every possible caller including the seed corn salesman, the neighbor calling to say the cows are out, your aunt, the lady at the dentist's office, etc., it gets a bit humbling.
When you determine what you want to say, there is the question of how to say it, getting your voice to sound semi-normal when reading the message that you have so carefully crafted to fill up the time.
When our machine as new, I tried to get my kid to help me fill up the 30 seconds after "hello this is the __. There is no one here right now to answer the phone. If you would care to leave your name and message, we will get back to you as soon as possible."
The kid was to play music on the tape recorder to fill up the rest of the 30 seconds. The kid turned on the tape and played one of AC/DC's more graphically obscene lyrics. We didn't leave that message on the machine very long.
Telephone answering machines cause some pretty strong feelings. Some people are insulted at being asked to talk to a machine. Others are nervous. A few take advantage of the theatrical opportunity.
Actually I'm a little ashamed of owning one. It's a bit yuppier than I like to see myself. But it's handy, especially when no one is home to answer the phone. I figure if people want to talk to the machine, fine. If not, that's fine too.
Duke ⋅ February 22, 2014
Are these from paper journals?
Bought my first answering machine in '86 - the year before my son was born. Because we lived in Las Vegas which was then telemarketing central.
After I moved back to Maine I was still paying for my son's cell phone bill. One time I called him and got a two minute rap tune before I was sent to voicemail.
The message I left was "Take that off now, or I will call Verizon and turn off your phone."
He was pretty quick to take it off.
Tick Tock Tick ⋅ February 27, 2014
Please tell us about some of your own greetings! Really laughed about AC/DC!! You are so right, to me it was a stage and I was ready to put on a show! One I best remember was requesting that callers lobby for longer vacations. I mentioned that Germans have six weeks, etc. I think I had a long tape because people must have hung up rather than listen to me. Actually, several folks (my own Mother included) told me about clicking to get right down to business (I can't even remember now how you do that!). My rampages were for the "cause of the day." "Leash your cats," was another. That seems like Long Ago but it was only around 1992 when I was doing it. It proves my spirit has died, I think, that now I let the phone man do it. Great article!!