Wondery Miniseries: OPERATOR

A Date With Dateline

Kimberly and Katie - ADWDL

True Crime, Comedy, Tv & Film

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2021

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During the 1-900 number craze of the Nineties, one company provided the vast majority of phone sex. American Telnet was an empire founded by the man who called himself “The Telephone Pimp.” He ran the company “like General Motors” and got filthy rich doing it. But for the (mostly) women who answered the calls and delivered fantasies 24-7, it was a different story. The powerful stigma against sex work was always lurking just beneath the surface, until it threatened to tear apart the whole company. Hosted by Tina Horn (Why Are People Into That?), OPERATOR is an eight-part series about big ambitions, Shakespearean-level corporate backstabbing, men and women at the cutting edge of a technological revolution...and on the front lines of a sexual one. Listen to Operator now! http://wondery.fm/OP_Date_Dateline Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi everybody, this is Kimberly and this is Katie.
0:03.1	We just heard about this new mini series from Wondry and topic studios called Operator.
0:07.6	An untold true story of Get Ready, the phone sex line company that took over the world.
0:16.6	Haven't they all know this is one that did specifically in the 90s adds for phone sex lines could be seen everywhere flickering on late night cable channels and printed on the back of magazines.
0:27.4	Well phone sex operators, I feel naughty saying that I feel like I should lower my voice.
0:32.4	Phone sex operators worked around the clock to fulfill fantasies.
0:36.9	It all started with an idea from Mike Pardes CEO and founder of American Tellnet who proudly coined himself the telephone pin.
0:46.9	Oh yeah, he was joined by tech genius and partner Michael self who was known as the Bill Gates of phone sex.
0:58.9	I'm speechless.
0:59.9	It was the women though.
1:01.5	It's always the women in the back do and all the work.
1:04.2	There we go.
1:04.8	They were the ones behind the phones and they created the close knit yet dysfunctional family that turned American tell net into a multi billion dollar company and revolutionized the sex industry as fortunes grew.
1:18.8	What happens when fortunes grow?
1:20.7	We've seen it a lot boats boats and then bad things happen.
1:24.4	Yeah, that too.
1:25.4	So the founders are sailing lavish yachts fueling wild drug parties because there's no tame drug parties.
1:33.6	And burning through cash by the minute and the FCC was watching their every move.
1:39.3	I think I get taken down.
1:41.0	This is very exciting.
1:42.7	This is a fascinating topic.
1:44.7	Wondry and topic studios new podcast operator is the untold story of a company which dominated the phone sex industry until the money blinded them and it all came crashing down.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kimberly and Katie - ADWDL, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kimberly and Katie - ADWDL and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.