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Dial-A-Carol is an annual student-run service at the
Dial-a-Carol is the longest running tradition in the university's housing department. Betty Gordon, a desk clerk at the time for Snyder Hall on campus, is commonly credited with conceiving of the Dial-a-Carol idea around 1960. She came up with the idea for students on the second floor of Snyder Hall to play holiday records over the phone. By 1962, students were already answering more than 4,000 calls. Soon, student carolers replaced records and now sing for callers from all 50 states and around the world.
2006 was the first year that Dial A Carol was featured on the BBCs Radio One show which resulted in hundreds of calls flooding the phone lines for days. The Scott Mills show have regularly called the service.
In December 2015, Jimmy Kimmel made a spoofed televised segment of Dial-a-Carol with "Hanu-kall-the singing Hanukkah Hotline". This massive attention garnered more callers, which resulted in the all-time highest recorded year in call volume. Many local and international radio stations also featured Dial-a-Carol calls on their programs.
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
in which students take calls from people asking for a Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...
. It is run out of Snyder Hall, a residence hall in the Ikenberry Commons on campus. Students and staff volunteer to take calls around the clock for a one week straight, every year during finals week of every Fall semester. As of 2015 Dial-A-Carol entered its 56th season, in which it garnered national attention from sources such as ABC News, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. USA Today College wrote that Dial-A-Carol shattered previous records by receiving over 10,000 calls in 2015 for one-week span.
History
Dial-a-Carol is the longest running tradition in the university's housing department. Betty Gordon, a desk clerk at the time for Snyder Hall on campus, is commonly credited with conceiving of the Dial-a-Carol idea around 1960. She came up with the idea for students on the second floor of Snyder Hall to play holiday records over the phone. By 1962, students were already answering more than 4,000 calls. Soon, student carolers replaced records and now sing for callers from all 50 states and around the world.
2006 was the first year that Dial A Carol was featured on the BBCs Radio One show which resulted in hundreds of calls flooding the phone lines for days. The Scott Mills show have regularly called the service.
Critical Reception
In December 2015, Jimmy Kimmel made a spoofed televised segment of Dial-a-Carol with "Hanu-kall-the singing Hanukkah Hotline". This massive attention garnered more callers, which resulted in the all-time highest recorded year in call volume. Many local and international radio stations also featured Dial-a-Carol calls on their programs.
References
{{authority control University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Christmas carols