The service ran from September 1985 to July 1987 and ended because Anderson lacked the time and money needed for the project to continue.
Anderson reported that in the first year, the service received about 200 phone calls a day and that over 150 poets contributed.
[5] It celebrated it first anniversary September 1986 with a 100 Poets Party, where 11 hours of continuous recorded performance poetry was presented at Galerie Articule.
[6] Poets who read on Dial-A-Poem Montreal include: Erín Moure, Howard Tessler, Bill Furey, Errol MacDonald, Raymond Filip, Clifford Duffy, Laurence Hutchman, Michael Toppings, Anne McLean, Roo Borson, Daphne Marlatt, Tom Wayman, Claudia Lapp, Elizabeth Allen, Patrick Lane, Lorna Crozier, Peter van Toorn, Endre Farkas, Brian Bartlett, Michael Harris, Noah Zacharin, Leo Kennedy, Esther Ross, Johanne Lafleur, Margaret Christakos, R.G.
Everson, Louis Dudek, Irving Layton, Kathy Acker, Lynne Tillman, Chris Kraus, Sylvere Lotringer, David Rattray, Edmundo Farolan, Manuel Betanzos Santos, Shulamis Yelin, and Renato Trujillo.