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If you've been sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to grab up the best 747 area code number (747-666-6666?), today is the first day to grab one. The San Fernando Valley has been in overlay mode--that means you have to first dial 1 when calling within the 818 area code--since last month. Starting today, new phone line activations can be in the new 747 area code or still within the 818 one until it's fully exhausted.
747 Soars in to Accompany 818
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Begley is a raving nutball and he is dead wrong. StrokerMcgurk
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I wonder if it's just coincidence or if there is some reason that L.A. area codea (at least the original ones) are always so close to New York area codes. Witness: 212 (Manhatan) vs. 213 (covering the main area of L.A.), 718 (Outer Boroughs) vs. 818 (L.A.'s "outer area" known as "The Valley"), and now 646 vs.747. There's other weird (and not so weird) parallels. The TV stations or course, need no explanation: WNBC, WCBS, WABC v. KNBC, KCBS, KABC, but then there's WNET vs. KCET (New York Educational Television vs. California Educational Television). I'm thinking that way back when this was, indeed, done on purpose with the telephone area codes. Even Chicago (which back in the day was America's "Second City", before L.A. became the #2 city) was 312. Coincidence or purposeful plan, back then?
i know 212 was easiest to dial on a rotary phone and 213 was also easy. 312 (Chicago) was also easy to dial.
bigger (important) cities had the easier rotary dialed area codes.
718 (Outer Boroughs) vs. 818 (L.A.'s "outer area" known as "The Valley")
Or 714, Northern Orange County.
That parallel really doesn't work like the others. If anything, 714 (Orange County) would be parallel to 914 (Westchester County) but to really be parallel like the others, the OC should be 814, not 714.
This was always a purposeful plan. Back when area codes for long distance dialing were first introduced, everyone had rotary phones - y'know, the type that took forever to dial. As such, prime urban areas received the 'easiest' area codes to dial on rotary phones - 212, for example, was the easiest area code to dial on a rotary telephone because it required the least amount of revolutions on the rotary dial.
The next easiest were 213, and 312, which went to Los Angeles and Chicago, respectively. You'll find that cities that had a major urban presence in the late 50s and early 60s always had far easier area codes to dial on rotary telephones than some other, less lucky places (Hawaii, for example, was saddled with 808). The 909 didn't come into existence until 1992, by which time rotary telephones were being phased out, so they weren't quite as screwed.
As for the television stations, it's fairly easy: most major television and radio call signs east of the Mississippi start with a 'W'; everything west of the Mississippi starts with a 'K'; New York and Los Angeles had first dibs on call signs for their stations, so it's not a surprise that the NBC station in LA is KNBC, while the station in NY is WNBC. Same goes for all the other majors that were established back in the 40s/50s.
Wow, it's times like these I realize how much useless information I truly possess.
One of my friends who MAJORED IN RADIO PRODUCTION in college, moved out to LA to do an internship when he was 21 and seriously asked me, "Why do all the radio stations start with K?" *headdesk*
see my reply below
Let's not forget the ultimate trendsetter TV station: KDKA, located EAST of the Mighty Mississip, in Pittsubrgh, PA.
Awkward phone dialing. Just one more reason for me to never go to the valley.
Fuck you, 747. You just ruined my whole life.
I think for television, it has to do with the fact that the original big three television networks are dual headquartered between NY and L.A. NBC and CBS have their corporate headquarters in NY, while ABC has it's corporate Headquarters in LA (with news in NY like the other two). Production for all three are in L.A. The call sign KNBC was originally NBC's radio station up in San Francisco, but they moved that call sign down to L.A. for the television station.