State California | ||
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Cities San Bernardino, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Pomona | ||
Area code 909
Area code 909 is a California telephone area code that covers far eastern Los Angeles County and southwestern San Bernardino County. The 909 area code was split from area code 714 on November 14, 1992. Western Riverside County was split off from 909 into area code 951 on July 17, 2004. Originally on that same date, the area retaining the 909 area code was to be overlaid by a new area code 752. However, this overlay plan was shelved prior to the 909/951 split, and area code 752 was returned to the NANPA numbering pool to be assigned at a later date. 909 still covers small portions of Corona, Riverside, and Moreno Valley, which are in Riverside County.
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Under the traditional NANPA plan, 909 was the "worst" area code for pulse dialers (due to the relatively long time required to send the pulses), in contrast to area codes such as 212 and 213. Area code 909 also has the distinction of being the second to last new area code with a 0 as the middle digit to go online. (The rest of the original style area codes afterwards were 905 [which was previously a "dialaround" code for Mexico] and the last of the N10 area codes that were allowed before the format changed in 1995.)
Los Angeles County
Riverside County
Area code 909 in pop culture
In 2003, the character Summer from The O.C. demeaningly refers to Pittsburgh as "the 909 of the east".
The 909 (ISBN 0975305239) by Jim Stewart is a 2003 novel that chronicles the trials and tribulations of a group of young adults living in Inland Southern California.
In 2004, KROQ-FM released a charity album entitled Christmas Time in the 909, which included a track of the same name by Greenbrier Lane.
In 2009, the episode "Stark Raving Dad" of The Simpsons reaired on the Fox network for the first time since 1993, in honor of Michael Jackson's death. The original episode had a cereal box with a Krusty the Klown pay hotline number, 1-909-O-U-KLOWN, chosen to resemble a toll 900 number but without being real, since at the time the 909 area code did not exist, and even the 2003 DVD of season 3 has it intact. However, the 2009 airing blanked out the 1-909- prefix now that it described not only a real area code but a legitimate phone number, making this a very accidental use and aversion of the area code.
In 2010, former All-Pro NFL lineman Kyle Turley released his debut Southern Rock album from his Gridiron Records label with the song "909", in which Turley pays homage to his hometown of Moreno Valley, CA, which up until 2004 was in the 909 and had been since 1992.
On September 22, 2013, the Los Angeles Times published an article reporting that visitors from the Inland Empire were being held responsible by residents of Huntington Beach for causing riots that took place there in July (even though an insignificant proportion of those arrested actually came from addresses with a 909 area code). The article noted that the noun "909-er" had entered the local popular culture as a term of abuse, partly in consequence.