Audiotext speaks Spanish
ATLANTA -- Abraham Menasche could be excused for displaying a wry grin every morning.

That's when companies in Cali, Colombia, are giving their office workers 15 minutes of company time to dial into Simon, the audiotext service running on his firm's equipment.

"It's so popular that the companies just have a period so the secretaries can call to get their horoscopes. That way, they're not on the phone all day when they should be working," Menasche said.

Audiotext systems from Menache's Miami-based Amaco International are operating in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, usually as joint ventures with local newspapers. Together they're wildly successful, generating 100 million messages to callers a year.

Personal classified ads haven't shown up yet, but sports, horoscopes, children's games, tarot cards, television and movie reviews, lottery numbers and even English tourist information all are there.

In Cali alone, Menasche says, 168 phone lines handle 65,000 calls per day, which means 92,000 sponsored messages are delivered each day.

Among the most popular items called up are tests in mathematics, Spanish, history, geography, world news and sports. All are interactive and all are sponsored.

The last election in Mexico served to test audiotext as a political polling device. Normally, pollsters discount phone-in polls as "self-selected," meaning that you'll phone in only if you have an ax to grind or can afford the call, which could skew the results.

But what if the population is so familiar with the audiotext system that a large cross-section participates? That's what may have happened in the Mexico test, because the polling turned out to be extremely accurate -- missing one party's results by 1.5 percent, and another's by a dead-on accuracy of 0.5 percent.

"I think within five years, this system could be the most accurate polling system in the country," Menasche said.

Back on the entertainment side of the audiotext spectrum, Menasche is about to roll out the boldest, funkiest audiotext service yet -- audiotext karaoke.

The newspaper prints the lyrics, you dial up the song you want to sing with, and the audiotext system plays the backup band into your telephone. As you sing along, you're recorded for about 2¢ minutes. Then you can replay the song with your vocals on it.

If this ever gets to Cali, the bosses will have to expand the audiotext break to 30 minutes.

Amaco International, (305) 599-1363

-- JB

See also: The ringy-dingy of audiotext is not phones, it's cash registers
Finding Mr. (or Ms.) Right with Christian audiotext systems

From THE COLE PAPERS, September 1995, Copyright © 1995, All Rights Reserved.