The printed phone book may soon be a thing of the past in Nebraska.
Love them or hate them, the “white pages” have landed on doorsteps across Lincoln for decades.
But the annual ritual is coming to an end.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved a waiver that will allow Windstream Communications to stop providing printed directories to thousands of customers in Lincoln and southeast Nebraska and instead fulfill its directory requirement with an online list of numbers.
This likely means that the latest folder delivered to homes will be the last.
Windstream spokesman Scott Morris said the printed phone book “no longer provides the same utility it once did.”
“Customers are now turning less to the phone book and instead to online and other resources for information,” Morris said in an email.
Richard Hummer uses the phone book to look up addresses while filling out applications at Nebraska Workforce Development on January 9, 2009.
He also said that reducing the number of printed folders is better for the environment and “reduces the demand on the currently strained paper supply.”
One person who will miss having a printed phone book is Eric Bigham.
The Lincoln man said he likes to have the phone book as a backup in case he can’t find a number online.
“Here’s the thing: phone books still have a place. Technology fails — it always does in one form or another (especially with consumer electronics today),” the Lincoln man said.
“Paper is very redundant and will never fail – except when it ages, gets water damaged or in a fire.”
Windstream will still need to print some folders and have them on hand for customers who want them, but it’s unclear how many people that will be.
Morris declined to say how many landline customers Windstream serves in Nebraska, but according to the PSC’s most recent annual report to the Nebraska Legislature, it was less than 75,000 per month. 30th of September. That was down more than 5,000 from a year earlier and down nearly 30,000 from five years ago.
Nationwide, the report listed fewer than 453,000 total landline customers among all carriers. This is a decrease from more than 1.1 million. in 2002.
Indeed, Windstream has been an outlier among the landline providers regulated by the PSC when it comes to printed directories.
The other two, CenturyLink and Frontier Communications, sought and received permission years ago to stop providing directories to their Nebraska customers unless they request them.
PSC spokeswoman Deb Collins said the commission “has not been made aware of any issues” with these companies since they began providing only printed directories to those who inquire.
Windstream is also seeking to stop providing the folders in other states where it provides service, including New York and its home state of Arkansas.
Ret Pennell, left, and Jill Arias take a long drink of water as they cool off before dropping off several phone books on August 16, 2007. Ret’s secret to beating the heat is eight bottles of water a day.
The PSC requires the company to notify its customers through notices in their printed bills for the next six months, as well as through an online notice posted on its customer portal. It will also be required to notify customers annually of the availability of printed directories.
The PSC’s decision may not mean the complete end of the phone books on the doorstep.
Morris said Windstream works with a third-party publisher to compile and print its directories, which include not only the white pages, but also a yellow pages directory of businesses that is also delivered to homes.
“It will be up to the publisher to decide whether it wants to continue printing the yellow pages,” he said.
People who still want a printed phone book can go to TheRealYellowPages.com or call 800-347-1991.
PhotoFiles: Radio days in Lincoln
Midgard
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Sue Tidball and Larry Doerr host their radio call-in show, Middle Earth, Sunday nights from 10-11:30 on KLMS in 1974. Radio means many things to many people. We hope to cover them all in this edition of PhotoFiles.
On the Hornet
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Lincoln Amateur Radio Club member Bruce Colgrove shouts out to anyone who listened in 1980.
‘Lincoln calls to the world. Come in.’
Up to date
Lincoln Amateur Radio Club operators “ham it up” in a competition with operators across North America at an annual field day designed to test emergency preparedness in 1981.
All weather, all the time
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Orval Jurgena sits at the control panel of Lincoln’s first weather band station in 1979. WXM-20 was part of a then-new effort by the National Weather Service to provide up-to-the-minute weather information 24 hours a day across the country.
Portable
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Today, you can get all the media in the world in your pocket with a smartphone. If you wanted a radio on the go in 1965, you had to have a specially made hat.
Collection
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Randy King displays his impressive collection of vintage and novelty radios in his home before showcasing them at Old Time Radio Days in Nebraska City in the 1990s.
X103
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This 1979 board tells Lincolnites exactly where to tune in for music.
But doesn’t it?
Up to date
This billboard from 1979 screams out the golden age of soft rock’s past. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Simply the best
Up to date
Best rock is clearly better than soft rock. That’s what the sign says.
Life Itself
Up to date
Do you remember this board from 1979? Was your life better for it?
Long live Timmo
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KTGL, 92.9 Eagle’s Joe Skar and Timmo bring the classic hits of 1996. Timmo started at Eagle in 1991 and is still at that station today, 24 years later.
Play time
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Laurie Rutmanis (left), Cathi Kendra and Joan Swanson broadcast “Playtime,” the only children’s radio show in Lincoln in 1979. The show used to air on Lincoln’s local radio station, KZUM, on Sunday afternoons.
Conversation starters
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Hosts Jane and Collie talking together on their radio show in 1996. The file image in our archives did not include a name for the show. Do you remember what it was?
Aeriola Jr.
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The very first home radio at consumer prices was the unfortunately named Aeriola Jr., which was unveiled in 1921.
Antennas in the sky
Up to date
Dave Whitworth, a member of the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club, makes an adjustment in the temporary antenna farm set up just north of the Nebraska Emergency Operations Center on North 14th Street for the 1994 National Field Day for Ham Radio Operators.
Antenna Farm
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Dozens of antennas fill the field near this radio monitoring station outside Grand Island in 1930.
Ham at home
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Traffic Chief Tom Boydston does a daily roll call of 125 radio amateurs identified with the state’s 75-meter telephone tape in 1953. His impressive rig is set up in his home.
Double ham
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Bill Schauer (left) and Evan Nitz give directions from a makeshift station to citizen radio enthusiasts arriving for a two-day jamboree sponsored by the Lincoln Metro CB Radio Club in 1968. As many as 5,000 people turned out for the event.
Reach out
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A ham radio operator calls from his home in 1978.
DIY
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Ray Klone of Lincoln inquires about buying his own CB at a 1968 sale.
The interview
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Stacen Goodlett (left) and Miah Gillander interview Vonnie Murphy for KZUM in 1996.
DJs take strange pictures
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Hits may come and go over time, but one thing in radio is always the same: DJs take strange shots. KFRX morning DJs Kristi London and Andy Vaughn illustrate this point in 1996.
10-4
Up to date
10-4, good mates. It is time for this operator to continue moving down the road. Thanks for checking out this edition of PhotoFiles.