Congress Finally Deals With Important Issues, the Volume Spike in TV Commercials
Posted on December 17th, 2009 by John Sostak
Congressman Cliff Stearns from Florida Demanding Congress to take Action
This article was taken from the Chicago Sun-Times. It was reported yesterday, and it pleases me to know that we have elected officials, like Cliff Stearns, US Congress, Florida’s 6th District as a vigilant watchdog, protecting consumers and citizens. The issue is the spike in volume which often happens when a television program goes into a commercial break.
You have probably dealt with this as recently, as…NOW!?! You are comfortably lounging in your front room, watching Godfather II on AMC, when it cuts to commercial and the volume is so explosive you dive for the remote control, throwing your pug from your lap, knocking over your Miller High Life, and effectively ruining your Snuggie.
WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday voted to level off the abrupt spikes in volume felt by television viewers during commercial breaks.
The bill is aimed at stopping TV ads from playing noticeably louder than programs. Right now, the government doesn’t have much say in the volume of TV ads. It’s been getting grievances about commercial loudness for decades.
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) addressed critics who have asked why Congress has to get involved in the matter.
“You can say, ‘Well, that’s fine. Just turn it off,’ ” Stearns said. “But it’s constantly an irritant when you have to do it. And we’ve got all the new bowl games coming up.” AP
The Networks are not only aware of what they are doing, this insensitivity to us as viewers is being done intentionally. Sad as it is, if this is not regulated by the FTC, it will continue. I have spilled to many beers and ruined far to many Snuggie’s for this to be allowed to continue.
Now, we can mock this cause, and a good man, but can anyone argue that this is not a serious problem? When I am watching college football bowl games which start on Saturday, and we go from football broadcast to a DAMN Jimmy Football Bud Light commercial which virtually destroys the speakers on my surround system, I will gratefully thanks Congressman Stearns from Florida for championing issues that affect OUR everyday lives.
![[Valid RSS]](valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")