(Image source: CBS)

BY MALLORY PERRYMAN

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Turn it down! If you think loud commercials are annoying --- well, maybe you should turn this, up.
 
Congress has passed the Commercial  Advertising Loudness Mitigation Act—or CALM—allowing the FCC to regulate commercial volume.
 
That’s right. They can’t agree on tax cuts, arms treaties, or funding the government—but it turns out, lawmakers both red and blue can come together over a mutual hatred of ear-splitting advertising. MSNBC’s Tamron Hall talked with the Democrat behind the House bill.
 
ANNA ESHOO (D-Ca.): “The complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, in fact this has been the top complaint for almost 50 years, so we’re finally doing something about it.”

TAMRON HALL: “Speaking of people who have done something about it. France, Australia, Brazil, Israel, even Russia have got regulations on the loudness of these ads.”
 
Commercial volume has been unmonitored since the dawn of TV. The Wall Street Journal reports the typical “too loud” standard has always been something like this. (Volume cranked up) Basically-- anything that distorts the sound. Ads aren’t supposed to exceed the peak loudness of the programs they interrupt.
 
“Here's the catch: The ‘peak’ is often merely a spike, such as a gunshot piercing the silence of a movie mystery. Ad producers, meanwhile, crank every bit of sound to just below that peak level… Industry officials insist that this isn't done just so consumers can't ignore commercials. It's because sound mixers are simply trying to one-up the volume of adjacent ads. The result is an arms race for listening ears.”

Miami ABC affiliate WPLG ran a story from ABC’s Jake Tapper where he demonstrates the new technology broadcasters use to stifle the screaming.
 
JAKE TAPPER: “Commercials tend to run about six to 10 decibels louder than the actual programs. That’s the difference between speaking in a normal tone of voice and shouting. So broadcasters are already installing sophisticated noise filters to try and put everything on the same level.”
 
But with a jam-packed lame duck agenda, should a commercial volume bill interrupt prime time politics?  
 
“This is one of those problems I wish Congress would’ve let technology and the marketplace deal with. No matter what your party affiliation may be, I’m sure we can all agree that our country has much more pressing issues than this.” (Gottabemobile)

And a blogger for ZDNet says, the problem was taking care of itself.

“More and more people are finding ways to circumvent commercials altogether, however, so the problem is becoming less of a nuisance with each passing day. Leave it to Congress to legislate away an issue that’s been known for ages but that technology was nearly rendering irrelevant anyway.”

If President Obama signs the bill,  the FCC will require advertisers to adopt new technology and practices that prevent overly loud ads by 2012.
 
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