John Draper

Episode 3, October 2024.

Freaking A! Nathan told the story of John Draper, known as Captain Crunch, and a toy whistle from a box of Captain Crunch cereal that produced a tone of exactly 2,600 Hz, the very frequency AT&T's long-distance network used to signal an idle line.

Blow the whistle into the phone, and you could seize the line and make free calls.

which is amazing, but why was it relevant at the time?

The culture that grew around learning to manipulate this infrastructure became known as freaking.

One of the most important freakers was John Draper, who was not coincidentally aliased to Captain Crunch, thanks to the aforementioned whistle.

Moving beyond whistles and instruments, Draper, along with several others, ultimately constructed what came to be known as blue boxes, devices capable of emitting the various tones necessary to take advantage of AT&T phone lines in various ways.

Freaking was arguably the beginning of what would later develop into the computer hacking subculture.