Dial-A-Poem

Dial-A-Poem is a phone-based service started in 1968 by poet John Giorno after a phone conversation with his friend William Burroughs. Fifteen phone lines were connected to individual answering machines; anyone could phone Giorno Poetry Systems and listen for free to a poem offered from various live recordings.

The venture was a success from 1969 on, and the poems dealt with numerous social issues such as the Vietnam War and the sexual revolution. Giorno claimed the service later influenced the creation of other information services over the telephone, such as banking, sports, and investing. It spawned a number of imitators. Eventually, all of them were eclipsed by the internet, most particularly by YouTube.