We've got this phone number where someone reads aloud the DNA Lounge calendar for the upcoming week. In this modern world, I'm not really sure whether it's worth even having such a thing (e.g., I have no idea how many people ever listen to it, since the telco won't give us those statistics), but we keep doing it because it's been the same phone number since 1985 (I've seen it printed on flyers going back that far!)

Anyway, I'd like to automate the process. I was thinking that I could have it forward to a Google Voice number, and then have a cron job upload a new speech-synthesized MP3 every night as the outgoing message.

Can any of you who are Google Voice users tell me if this is even possible? Reports seem to conflict. Can you try it and let me know?

I can't easily try it myself, because currently that phone number doesn't ring anywhere (it's announce-only). So to set it up for Google Voice, first I'll have to forward it to a real phone so that I can receive a call and type in the magic confirmation code. I'd rather not bother until I know it's worth the effort.

Also, I'm kind of confused about which of the two varieties of Google Voice setups I should be using. Should I create a new phone number and forward the old one to it, or should I tell it to "take over" voicemail on the old one? How does that work, anyway?

Update: The answer is, "No, Google Voice can't do that. You can't upload an MP3, and outgoing messages are limited to 30 seconds."

Other unacceptable suggestions included "hook up the phone line to a Linux PC running some hacky software", and "use some other random web service that actually costs money."

Obviously both of these approaches would be way more costly than what I'm willing to put in to this passing whim of a project. So, fuck it.