Long before we were graced with the voices of SAM, Siri, or Alexa, and before we could carry our smart devices around like a wallet or clutch…there were the women and men who served us from behind the receiver: the telephone operator. Maybe they didn’t have the answer to everything but they could connect us to about anyone anywhere in the world. But it usually cost more than we were willing to admit. This week’s Deeper Roots show takes on the theme of the telephone operator, the long distance connector, and the person with a soul…and usually a quick hangup if there were not enough coins to drop in the pay phone. It was the penalty for human interaction I guess. We’ll let Jorma, Johnny Otis, Wanda Jackson, and Eddie Floyd take us on a trip back to rotary dials and party lines in this week’s episode, live from the Santa Rosa studios at KOWS.

No.	Artist	Title	Album	Buy
1	Mary Wells	Operator	Looking Back 1961-1964
2	Dusty Owens	Hello Operator	Talking on the Telephone Vol. 2
3	Rusty McDonald	Call Operator 210	Talking on the Telephone Vol. 2
4	Hank Snow	I Just Telephoned Upstairs	The Chronogical Classics 1951-1952 (Warped 5244)
5	Bonnie Guitar	Hello, Hello, Please Answer The Phone	Talking on the Telephone Vol. 2
6	Wanda Jackson	Between The Window And The Phone	Talking on the Telephone Vol. 2
7	The Blue Sky Boys	The Royal Telephone	Talking on the Telephone Vol. 2
8	Johnny Burnette	Operator	The Train Kept a-Rollin' Memphis to Hollywood – CD 9
9	Howard Crockett	Please Answer The Phone	Talking on the Telephone Vol. 2
10	Jorma Kaukonen	Operator	River Of Time
11	The Band	Long Distance Operator	A Musical History [Disc 2]
12	The Golden Gate Quartet	I Just Telephone Upstairs	Vol. 6 (1949-1952)
13	The Jordaniares	I Telephoned Upstairs	The Jordaniares Gospel
14	Selah Jubilee Singers	Royal Telephone	Complete Recorded Works – Vol. 1 (1939-1941)
15	Sister Wynona Carr	Operator, Operator	Dragnet For Jesus
16	Spirit Of Memphis Quartet	The Atomic Telephone	The Best Of King Gospel
17	Sister Wynona Carr	Don't Miss That Train	Dragnet For Jesus
18	Johnny Otis	Call Operator 210	Mercury R&B Story '45-'55 – [Disc 6] West Coast Blues V2
19	Tony & Tyrone	Please Operator	After Hours 3 – More Northern Soul Masters
20	Gladys Knight & The Pips	Operator	Soul Grooves
21	The Marvelettes	Beechwood 4-5789	20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of The Marvelettes
22	Eddie Floyd	634-5789	Stax Profiles – Eddie Floyd
23	Ry Cooder	634-5789	Borderline
24	Tommy Tutone	867-5309/Jenny	Radio Hits of the '80s
25	Rosanne Cash	Radio Operator	Black Cadillac
26	Jim Croce	Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)	Photographs & Memories: His Greatest Hits
27	The Manhattan Transfer	Operator	Anthology – Down in Birdland [Disc 1]
28	The Grateful Dead	Operator	American Beauty
29	Bob Gaddy	Operator	The Classic Old Town Records
30	Effie Smith	Dial That Telephone (07-27-51)	1945-1953
31	Floyd Dixon	Call Operator 210	The Aladdin Story (Pt. 2)