Digital Journal — Standing on the Washington Mall, a stretch of parkland in the centre of America’s capital, you wonder why you decided to soak in this history-laden metropolis without a tour guide.
But little do you know that flesh-and-blood guides are only one option. The other option lies in your pocket, where your cell phone is waiting to show you around town.
Take out the phone and dial a Washington number. After agreeing to shell out $6 (US) for a 40-minute audio tour of Washington’s landmarks, you will soon hear Larry King lead you through the city where he worked for 20 years.
“When you’re looking at the Washington Mall, you’re looking at America,” says the CNN host in your ear. “And the buildings here tell American stories in all sorts of ways.”
It’s yet another use for your cell phone, but this time the feature is both educational and practical. Learning about a city through pre-recorded information means the facts are accurate and detailed, while the tour guide remains consistent and friendly, unlike a fallible human.
Producing the celebrity-narrated tours is Talking Street, a New York City-based brand that also offers tours of New York’s Lower East Side (voiced by comedian Jerry Stiller), Lower Manhattan (Sigourney Weaver) and Boston (Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler). Later this year, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto will join the roster.
“Some tourists like going at their own schedule, their own pace,” says Miles Kronby, creator of Talking Street. “Now they can stop at whatever sites they like and are led by a person who has a passion for that city.”
The celebrity scripts also include eyewitness anecdotes and archival clips, such as Roosevelt’s radio broadcasts played during a trip to his memorial site in Washington. “This adds dimensions to a memorial otherwise made of stone,” Kronby says.
Talking Street tours try to assimilate the visual experience through detailed description, pooling all the senses into a medium that employs only one. At Washington’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, carved into the black granite is the name of a fallen soldier whose 1969 letter to his mother is read on the audio tour.
A similar service is available in Canada, where a three-year-old company called Murmur posts signs in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver neighbourhoods that invite visitors to dial a number and listen to the story behind overlooked buildings.
What began as a new media project for three Toronto students has elevated into a tech-driven tour known for its unlikely content. Murmur doesn’t hire celebrities, but instead requests submissions from the public. Not only are the sound bites free, they cater to the tourist frustrated by cookie-cutter tours showing the same lukewarm hot spots. Murmur’s stories include such simple tales as one woman’s heartbreaking revelation at a late-night Chinese restaurant in Toronto’s Kensington Market.
“These are stories bubbling up through the sidewalk cracks rather than a narrative booming down from the sky,” Murmur co-founder Shawn Micallef says.
Finding Murmur’s telltale green signs becomes a scavenger hunt for tourist and resident alike, luring the listener into personal moments that turn the visitor into a voyeur. While Talking Street pulls history texts into hour-long walks, Murmur unveils a city’s hidden cameras.
Micallef is hopeful that services like Murmur will free the cell phone from its obvious function. “People use the phone as a utilitarian device,” he says. “It’s not only for receiving a call on what to pick up at the grocery store.”
Talking Street’s Kronby is looking to expand his tours into other mobile technologies. He predicts audio will accompany video and pictures as camera phones begin to drive the market.
If other companies follow Kronby’s lead — Lonely Planet is already providing their guidebook content to cell phone providers — it won’t be long before tour guides curse the cell phone. On the flip side, tourists will likely appreciate a technology that successfully bridges the past with the present.
The Benefits of Cell Phone Tours:
To hear samples, visit www.talkingstreet.com
This article is part of Digital Journal’s national magazine edition. Pick up your copy of Digital Journal in bookstores across Canada and the United States. Or subscribe to Digital Journal now, and receive 8 issues for $29.95 + GST ($48.95 USD).
