Phone Service Disrupted by Mixup in TV Quiz Line

Telephone service in the Los Feliz and Silver Lake areas of Los Angeles was disrupted Monday evening after KABC-TV switched to an alternate number for a telephone quiz, resulting in a “kind of telephone gridlock,” a spokesman for Pacific Bell said.

The station normally uses a number with a 520 prefix for the postgame quiz after Monday Night Football, but that number was not working properly, said Pacific Bell spokesman Mike Runzler. When the alternate number was put into play at 9:05 p.m. the problems began, he said.

“The alternate number KABC broadcast was not equipped to handle a large volume of calls,” Runzler said. “The result was that the response overloaded the system.” By 9:45 p.m., the number with the 520 prefix was back on the air, and the problem was solved, Runzler said. Problems ranged from inability to place calls from some areas to delays in getting a dial tone, he said.