In article ,
D Tiernan wrote:

Hold your breath for a little while and we will see the return of Ma
Bell (remember I said here).

It won't be Ma Bell. Ma Bell served everyone, rural and urban alike. Ma
Bell's rates were reasonable and understandable. Ma Bell didn't skimp on
maintenance to make sure the stockholders got richer. Ma Bell sold
*service* not *plans*.

"Oh, you want it to WORK?" (The NEW AT&T)

--
John Higdon
+1 408 266 4400

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 10:31:08 -0800, D Tiernan
wrote:

Hold your breath for a little while and we will see the return of Ma
Bell (remember I said here).

Yeah but.....I predicted that they were going to solder the Bell
System back together almost 15 years ago. During those years my son
has worked for three of the incarnations (Pac*Bell, SBC, and now ATT)
and never left the same employer....now add BellSouth into the mix.

--
Phil Kane
Beaverton, OR

On Jan 28, 2:42 am, Tester wrote:
Is Clear Channel qualified to run all six non-religious commercial
stations in Minot, SD? Is any single company?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/ma...IdeaLab.t.html

In the early morning of Jan. 18, 2002, a Canadian Pacific Railway
train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed just outside Minot, N.D.,
spilling roughly 240,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia into a woodsy
neighborhood on the outskirts of town. The resulting toxic cloud grew
to some five miles long, two and a half miles wide and 350 feet high,
enveloping the homes of approximately 15,000 people. Confused and
afraid, thousands of Minot residents turned on their radios to get
public warnings and instructions on how to stay safe.

Yet no such information was available. Minot's six nonreligious
commercial stations, all of which were owned and operated by the
nation's largest radio company, Clear Channel Communications, were
broadcasting prerecorded programs engineered in remote studios. Police
dispatchers couldn't reach anyone in Clear Channel's local offices:
the town's new emergency-communications system failed to automatically
issue an alert, and no one answered the phones at the stations. What
ensued was horrific: as one man died and hundreds became ill from
inhaling the poisonous gas, the airwaves were filled with canned music
and smooth-talking D.J.'s.
[...]

So... 'local' Police and Fire Deparments have NO Responsibility
and only Radio can get the job done - Not !

Gee Wow I was Asleep - Did I Miss Something ?

what we have here is a failure to communicate ~ RHF