Audiotext began to boom in the 1980s, but it actually got its start in 1927 when New Jersey Bell first offered callers the exact time of day. In the beginning, live operators—always women—answered the phones and announced the time. But sex was on the minds of many male callers, so the company instructed its operators to mimic the recorded messages that were just coming on the scene, so they wouldn't spend their shifts fending off propositions.
