A few months ago, we told you about a wonderfully old-school phone number that let you do one thing: call to get the time.
Now, the service run by John Lochridge in Dallas, has added the current weather and forecast back into the service. Give it a call at (414) 844-1414.
Lochridge, who runs Commcierge Solutions Group LLC, is a telecom engineer who loves nostalgia. He’s been working on the weather side of the service for months, and on Oct. 12, it went live.
"With the winter weather coming we wanted to be ready," Lochridge says. "(The end) of Daylight Savings Time is coming up on Nov. 4. That's like the Super Bowl if you provide time and temperature."
In Milwaukee, Lochridge also owns (414) 936-1212, which spells WEather6-1212. The time service was operated by Wisconsin Bell and AT&T but discontinued in 2007, and he brought it back in June 2014.
The updated service tells callers the current temperature, but also a forecast for today and tomorrow. It’s free, just like it was in the old days, but it’s sponsored now.
And people still use it. In July, Lochridge says the service received 20,000 in this area code, alone.
Sure, there are tons of ways to get the weather these days, but only one from a landline in Milwaukee. Sometimes it’s fun to slow down and listen to a service that has existed, off and on, for decades, and still lives on.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
