A Short Story About My First BBS

My grandfather gifted my first Macintosh, a Mac 128, to me in March of 1984 as a graduation gift. I spent the remainder of my senior year messing around with MacWrite and MacPaint, and writing software in MS BASIC.

That summer I bought a Novation 300 baud modem and learned to call a movie times database as well as local BBSes. In early January, 1985, I attended my first Los Angeles Macintosh Group meeting, with Marc Canter and Bill Atkinson as presenters.

The meeting was so inspirational that I answered the call to run the group’s BBS on my Mac using (I think) Red Ryder Host. I had a second phone line installed for the BBS, configured the BBS and began to operate the BBS overnight.

After a couple of days I noticed that the BBS was offline. I tried dialing some other systems, but nothing connected. After a few more attempts, I picked up the phone to see if I could hear the remote modem.

What I heard was not the dulcet tones of a 300 baud modem, but rather the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game. I contacted the phone company and they sent out a technician the next day.

The technician found that the wire had rusted out down the line, and the phone line was acting as an antenna, tuned to KABC.

So instead of a phone line to the future, I had a line to the wonderful voice of Vin Scully.

That is how my first BBS started life.