Many seek relief from TV commercial loudness

The late Edmund Muskie – a former Maine governor, U.S. senator, 1968 vice presidential candidate, 1972 presidential candidate, and later secretary of state in the Carter administration – was often heard to say, “Speak only when you can improve on silence.”

Sadly, today’s television hucksters not only hammer away at us 24 hours a day, every day of the year, but the ads we see them in are way, way, too loud, seemingly much louder than the accompanying television show. Viewers are reduced to clutching the remote purposefully and hitting the mute button or volume control to keep their sanity and their hearing when the commercials air.

For those who are limited in their mobility or are hospitalized, the solution may be to just grin and bear the obnoxious, loud sound of these ads.

As each American spends an average of more than four hours a day with the tube on, there must be a better way for advertisers to hawk their wares without forcing the citizenry to wear hearing aids or ear protectors, or both.

The Federal Communications Commission (www.fcc.gov) does not specifically regulate the loudness of TV stations, but it does limit the power a station can use to punch out the volume. The FCC Web site addresses this issue in the weakest of terms, pointing to broadcasters as the source of the problem and noting that some electrical equipment might be of help. But the FCC doesn’t take any clear responsibility for the problem.

Production people at television stations say the ads are no louder than the “peak loudness” of regular programming. While we all know this seems unbelievable at first blush, perhaps a more realistic way to state this is that the ads are no louder than the peak “loudest” part of the show, which has a wide variety of sounds, loud and soft.

Said another way, instead of trying to drink out of a small squirt gun, where the squirts represent occasional loud sounds of regular programming, it is more like trying to drink out of a fire hose where the water pressure (loudness) is always present without variation. Sound nuances or silence have no place in television ads. They are consistently loud for their entire 30- to 60-second life, fighting hard for the attention of the viewers, not unlike the hucksters at the sideshows at the Bangor State Fair, where the announcer at the dunk tank immediately comes to mind. He is consistently bellowing and consistently obnoxious. It is difficult to avoid his “noise.”

Is there any hope on the horizon for the viewing public? Rumor has it that Dolby Laboratories will soon bring to market a product that will monitor the sound differences of all programming and also the software to adjust these differences to the benefit of the hearing and saneness of the viewer. The cost of this system is not known, but the product may be available in new TV sets in late 2007 or early 2008.

You can rest assured that this TV add-on, whatever the cost, will be borne by the consumer. Another solution would be for consumers to write the FCC and their federal representatives to encourage lawmakers to make changes in the existing regulations. These new regulations would empower the FCC to take action to better regulate this persistent noise pollution problem.

There is another tried and true solution to the challenge of television advertising loudness. This highly technical solution is available on the face of every TV set and on the remote. It is labeled the “power on/off” switch. Perhaps if more of us used the “Muskie Method,” the pure sweetness of silence would permeate TV rooms across Maine and the nation.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast CONTACT, Maine’s membership-funded nonprofit consumer organization. Individual membership costs $25; business rates start at $125 (0-10 employees). For help and information write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.