News from the Ship
A Little History of Jolly Roger Telephone

Before I tell you the latest updates, here's a little crazy background of the Jolly Roger Telephone website and logo.

Originally, I was going to start an anonymous blog about telecommunications in the Caribbean. I had an idea of a "pirate telephone service" much like the concept of Pirate Radio . Imagine if a seasoned telephone engineer (like me!) retired to the Caribbean, bought a boat, and started looking for the original long-abandoned telegraph wires between the islands. And then, imagine he connected them to some rogue equipment and provided telephone service throughout the Caribbean! It's a goofy idea, but I was going to write a blog as if I were that guy and include various little tidbits about telephony and the history of telephone service in the Caribbean. To help support my crazy idea, I enlisted my nephew, Chris Stetson , to create our fantastic logo. Thanks, Chris! The telephone network has been around for 140 years and it's a rich and fascinating study. Writing a light-hearted and whimsical blog seemed a fun and entertaining way to share my love of telephone with you!


I was no longer anonymous and discovered there's a better use for the Jolly Roger Telephone domain! Now I have a crew! We are a mix of real people and bots, and our mission is to protect all of you from telemarketers. We are honored that you're letting us do this for you! As goofy as the Jolly Roger Telephone service might be, there's a serious side to it. With your help, we are slowly getting the attention of the telecommunications industry. I do not think this service would have been this popular without the entertainment contained in these calls. Who knew that humor can be used as a vector for change in the telecommunications industry?

Casting a Net in the Network

I would like to remind all of you that the Jolly Roger Telephone Service is whimsical and entertaining. Please be sure to maintain  low expectations  of the bots. Remember that they only need to be a little smarter than the telemarketer's predictive dialer. Once a bot gets a telemarketer on the line, the rest is bonus. There are several great examples on our YouTube channel, but there are lots of colossal failures, too. It's like fishing. Be patient and don't be discouraged if some get away. You'll get plenty of telemarketer calls and we might hook the next one. Oh, and when you get a good call, please consider submitting it as "Catch of the Day" via link in your email. We  always  scrub the calls of personal information before posting them.
Jolly Roger Telephone Loves the Caribbean!

Those of you using Pirate Voicemail may have noticed a "short URL" of  jrt.lc . This is a domain for St. Lucia. As you can tell from this newsletter, I have a soft spot for the Caribbean and we were all sorry to see the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in September. Please consider donating to the relief. Puerto Rico needs all the help it can get. There are many great opportunities to give, so pick your favorite charity and donate –
just don’t give them your phone number!
What Has Roger Been Up To?
Pirates and Secret Missions

I have hinted that we've gotten the attention of the telecommunications industry! There are a lot of things happening deep under the sea. I am not able to talk about them yet, but we're honored that the industry is taking us seriously. The telemarketers see us as a threat (yay!) and the carriers see us as potential partners (yay!) We owe all of this attention to you, our subscribers. Please continue to spread the word about this service and, if you know any podcasters, DJs, writers, bloggers, or reporters, we love talking about telemarketing and telecommunications!
New Website and Porthole Portal

As we mentioned in the last newsletter, we are working on a new website for you! As a 'seasoned' telephone engineer, I'm really good with telephone systems but I'm not much of a web programmer. We're currently using a combination of Wix, Wordpress, text messages, email links, and the old-fashioned telephone to provide this service for you. It's working, but it reminds me of that pirate telephone guy pulling wires from the island muck in the Caribbean and plugging them together haphazardly. We've taken all of our pieces of eight and we're putting it into a new web site for you that will include a lot of features we think you'll like. These include the ability to
  • Manage your account including email and telephone numbers
  • Listen and manage your recordings and messages
  • Add, remove, and modify your black lists and white lists (including support for wildcards so you can block entire area codes or country codes)
  •  And more!
We've tried to use as many off-the-shelf tools for all of this, but honestly the Jolly Roger Service has gotten pretty complicated! So we need a to finish a lot of custom development which takes some time and a treasure chest of doubloons!
Jolly Roger in the Press

Techtonic
Roger was recently featured on Techtonic, a radio program in New York on October 23. Click here to link to the show.

Fox 35 Orlando
Just this week, Roger took part in a television interview with Fox 35 Orlando. It should be aired on November 2, 2017 around 8:10am EDT.
Click here to watch.
Roger's Podcast
You can click here to listen to my podcast
Or just search your podcast app for "Jolly Roger Telephone."
The Jolly Roger Crew
There is more to Jolly Roger Telephone than just me! I am the primary programmer for the bots and I've been doing the interviews and speeches, but this is getting to be a crazy amount of work and you will start to hear from some other people if you contact us via email, Facebook, YouTube, the WordPress Blog, or Twitter. Besides me, you might see the names Jennifer, Ted, and Phil when you contact us. We are a small and friendly team dedicated to fighting your telemarketers. Please say hello if you chat with someone new!

Thanks again,
Roger & the Pirate Crew
Join Jolly Roger in the Battle Against Telemarketers
To subscribe to the Jolly Roger Service or for more information....
Jolly Roger Telephone Company
710 S. Myrtle Avenue,  Unit 273,  Monrovia, CA 91016
206-259-4900