Connecting
Saturday 4 September 2004 22:00-22:30 (Radio 3)
Go where only your ears can take you.
This is the story behind the first computer hackers, told in their own words, and featuring the voices of such legendary figures as Captain Crunch, Joy Bubbles, Mark Bernay and cofounder of Apple computers Steve Wozniak.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, big changes were taking place in the US phone network: armed only with a telephone, a little technical knowledge and a lot of curiosity, kids across America were exploring the phone system, discovering how it worked and what else it could be made to do.
The first and original hackers, these 'phone phreaks' now talk candidly about the early days of hacking: the highs and lows, the clashes with the law, and how their early experiments contributed directly to the phenomenal rise of the home computer during the 1980s.
Connecting makes extensive use of archive recordings made by the actual phreaks themselves to document party lines, long distance conversations and prank calls.
Hear what it was like to be one of the original phone phreaks, working your way around the telephone system back in the early 1970s - hear intercept messages and system noises from the time.
Written and presented by Ken Hollings, with music by Simon James.
