Turn the Sound Down, Will You?

Yesterday's WSJ 'A-Hed' piece was about Congress finally getting close to regulations regarding the loudness of commercials relative to the shows they've just segued from.

It's been an issue for decades. More decades than I suspect the reporters might even be aware of. The show you were just watching and listening to cuts to commercial and suddenly it's Dolby Surround Stereo IMAX theater sound coming at you with a volume reserved for interrupting General Noreiga's sleep, before he was taken into custody.

It's a good story and serves to explain why it's been so difficult to create regulations. Definitions. It's always definitions. The problem has gotten worse I imagine because people can switch from channel to channel so quickly that they are likely to encounter a commercial coming from a show that wasn't following the show they were just watching. Definitions.

Believe it or not, Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon did a skit on this very annoyance sometime in the late 50s, early 60s, when they were doing a game show called 'Who Do You Trust.'

It was a lot harder to change channels then. You had to GET UP, and spin a dial, and according to some people, ONLY in one direction. Always clockwise, or counter-clockwise. I can never remember. Otherwise, you were just hastening the set's trip "to the shop." There also weren't very many numbers on that roulette wheel either , so basically, you just waited for the commercial to be over and you could get back to what you were watching. Captive.

Invariably, the commercial would come at a distinctly greater volume than the show. Johnny and Ed showed the effects of this when Johnny was "watching" something on TV, holding a cup and saucer of coffee, maybe. The commercial announcer come on (Ed) and bellowed the product. Johnny shook as if it was the 1906 San Fransisco earthquake, spilled the coffee and dropped the cup and saucer. He might have even leaped into Ed's arms he was so frightened. I forget.

Exaggeration? Sure. But funny. And in essence, true. Still true, it seems.

Definitions.

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