January 25, 2023
FCC To Advertisers: Turn The Volume Down!
- by David Goetzl @dgoetzl, September 30, 2010
Advertisers may soon have the volume turned down. The Senate has passed legislation mandating that the FCC regulate the volume on TV ads, ensuring the sound on commercials does not overly exceed the decibel level during the program.
The bill has already passed the House and once the two bodies patch up some minor differences -- likely after Nov. 2 -- it will head to the president to become law. Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the legislation in the Senate.
Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer were among the co-sponsors of the "Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act" in the body.
"Every American has likely experienced the frustration of abrasively loud television commercials," Whitehouse stated. "While this may be an effective way for ads to grab attention, it also adds unnecessary stress to the daily lives of many Americans."
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Rockefeller added: "This common sense bill will make sure advertisers can't just blast advertisements at consumers at unbearable volume levels."
The FCC has gotten complaints about the decibel level on ads since the 1960s. It has publicly listed the matter as one of the top consumer complaints it has received multiple times since 2002. But it has had no regulatory power.
The House passed CALM legislation in December, where California Democrat Anna Eshoo was the lead sponsor. She said it "give(s) the control of sound back to the consumer, where it belongs."
While advertisers may be unhappy, the onus will fall on networks, stations and cable companies to comply with FCC orders.
3 comments about "FCC To Advertisers: Turn The Volume Down!".
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Now if they could only amend the "V-Chip" Law so that it applies to Commercials. That way Parents could Block Ads, such as those for certain Prescription Drugs, that they don't want their children to see.
What struck me about the passage of this bill is that Americans are being inundated with high, low and ultra-low frequency noise produced by industrial wind turbine developments and no one in government is listening. It is simple to turn the volume down on the TV, or if you don't want to get out of your chair to find the remote, the average commercial break is only two minutes. Anyone can bear that. But people are begging for our Department of Environmental Protection, our CDC and other logical regulatory bodies to take a stand and protect residents from the constant stress caused by these massive machines... and those who are suffering cannot turn them down. Somehow, that doesn't seem quite right...
I urge readers to educate themselves about land-based industrial wind. If you'd like to learn the facts, as opposed to the feel-good propaganda the wind industry is spouting, please begin at www.windaction.org, www.windtaskforce.org, www.highlandmts.org or www.stopillwind.org.
Respectfully,
Karen Pease
Lexington Twp., Maine
What our congressmen don't understand is that it isn't about decibel level. It's about dynamic range and modulation density, which are factors of equalization and compression applied to the mix of commercial audio.
The only way to guarantee no shift in loudness between programming and commercials is to carefully police the mix process in the studio. In other words, there is simply no way to legislate the apparent loudness of a commercial. This is a waste of time and energy based on a complete lack of information.