The CALM Act

[Disco Pickle]

I'm pretty sure the FCC already regulates radio commercial volume - why not TV as well? I had a radio show very briefly, and we had to keep watching the volume meter to make sure it was within a certain range. On the radio, you can actually get fined for suddenly blasting your listeners with high volume sounds.

I gotta admit I'm a bit surprised at the number of people here who are defensive of having to adjust the volume every time a commercial comes on. I mean it's not like this is a free speech issue. But the US government isn't in good favor right now so everything they does seems like WTF IS THIS SHIT

my reasoning is this: you're already doing the least possible amount of activity available to you.  If having to turn down the volume (which was probably much higher than needed or is healthy) is too much fucking work then you should probably just pack it up and get off the planet.  Helping americans become even more fucking lazy tv watchers gets under my skin a bit.

We don't want to do it ourselves so lets get the government to do it for us.

[Adios]

I always mute commercials.
However, I do support this legislation simply because it prevents those idiots from fucking up anything important.

[Whatever]

Well as someone who uses the news as her "background noise" it is preferable to have a fairly steady volume.  I think maybe some of y'all should hook up a regular antenna to your tv for an evening and see just how loud these non-buffered commercials are IRL and not from cable.  When you can turn the commercial volume down to 3 to match the tv show volume of 16, there is a problem.

It's not laziness or really annoyance as much as my neighbors banging on the fucking walls if I'm not right there to turn the volume down.  God forbid I have to pee.....

I mean seriously, you are going from la la la la to COMMERCIAL with little or no warning sometimes.  It can scare the crap out of you if you aren't paying attention.

[AFK]

Well, I've found having two small children running around the living room easily drowns out the loud commercials. 

[hooplala]

Well as someone who uses the news as her "background noise" it is preferable to have a fairly steady volume.  I think maybe some of y'all should hook up a regular antenna to your tv for an evening and see just how loud these non-buffered commercials are IRL and not from cable.  When you can turn the commercial volume down to 3 to match the tv show volume of 16, there is a problem.

It's not laziness or really annoyance as much as my neighbors banging on the fucking walls if I'm not right there to turn the volume down.  God forbid I have to pee.....

I mean seriously, you are going from la la la la to COMMERCIAL with little or no warning sometimes.  It can scare the crap out of you if you aren't paying attention.

Isn't it actually the dictionary definition of lazy?

lazy |ˈlāzē|
adjective ( lazier , laziest )
1 unwilling to work or use energy

[Cramulus]

I'm pretty sure the FCC already regulates radio commercial volume - why not TV as well? I had a radio show very briefly, and we had to keep watching the volume meter to make sure it was within a certain range. On the radio, you can actually get fined for suddenly blasting your listeners with high volume sounds.

I gotta admit I'm a bit surprised at the number of people here who are defensive of having to adjust the volume every time a commercial comes on. I mean it's not like this is a free speech issue. But the US government isn't in good favor right now so everything they does seems like WTF IS THIS SHIT

my reasoning is this: you're already doing the least possible amount of activity available to you.  If having to turn down the volume (which was probably much higher than needed or is healthy) is too much fucking work then you should probably just pack it up and get off the planet.  Helping americans become even more fucking lazy tv watchers gets under my skin a bit.

We don't want to do it ourselves so lets get the government to do it for us.

it sounds like you don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics
but it IS the government's job to make sure that we're "less lazy"


I don't really understand how not wanting to be blasted with sound = laziness

it's not like the threshold between Living Vegetable and Hercules will get any narrower by making people to adjust the volume 4+ times every 30 minutes.

and it's not like anybody's saying waaaah it's too much work to turn down the TV... it's more like, why should we be subjected to these annoying marketing tactics in the first place? You can't even hold a conversation over some commercials.

[hooplala]

it sounds like you don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics

I don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics.  I believe it's the government's job to protect us from invading forces.

[Adios]

it sounds like you don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics

I don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics.  I believe it's the government's job to protect us from invading forces.

Mexicans! Dammit!

[Disco Pickle]

I'm pretty sure the FCC already regulates radio commercial volume - why not TV as well? I had a radio show very briefly, and we had to keep watching the volume meter to make sure it was within a certain range. On the radio, you can actually get fined for suddenly blasting your listeners with high volume sounds.

I gotta admit I'm a bit surprised at the number of people here who are defensive of having to adjust the volume every time a commercial comes on. I mean it's not like this is a free speech issue. But the US government isn't in good favor right now so everything they does seems like WTF IS THIS SHIT

my reasoning is this: you're already doing the least possible amount of activity available to you.  If having to turn down the volume (which was probably much higher than needed or is healthy) is too much fucking work then you should probably just pack it up and get off the planet.  Helping americans become even more fucking lazy tv watchers gets under my skin a bit.

We don't want to do it ourselves so lets get the government to do it for us.

it sounds like you don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics
but it IS the government's job to make sure that we're "less lazy"


I don't really understand how not wanting to be blasted with sound = laziness

it's not like the threshold between Living Vegetable and Hercules will get any narrower by making people to adjust the volume 4+ times every 30 minutes.

and it's not like anybody's saying waaaah it's too much work to turn down the TV... it's more like, why should we be subjected to these annoying marketing tactics in the first place? You can't even hold a conversation over some commercials.

come on Cram, thinking it's not the governments job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics does not translate to advocating for the government to make sure we're less lazy.

knowing the sorts of things you usually post, I have to call willful misinterpretation on that.

If you can't hold a conversation over the commercials, you probably have the volume up too high during the program too.

[Whatever]

S'ok Hoops, condsidering y'all watch what?  The Curling channel 24/7 up there, I'm sure you look forward to the commercials so you don't stab yourself in the fucking eye.

However, until you have actually experienced the huge volume jump in commercials (and it is not minor, I tried to explain, but I guess you didn't or couldn't read) you really have no true opinion on any of it!

Oh look, your metal disc isn't being swept in front of properly.....

[hooplala]

S'ok Hoops, condsidering y'all watch what?  The Curling channel 24/7 up there, I'm sure you look forward to the commercials so you don't stab yourself in the fucking eye.

However, until you have actually experienced the huge volume jump in commercials (and it is not minor, I tried to explain, but I guess you didn't or couldn't read) you really have no true opinion on any of it!

Oh look, your metal disc isn't being swept in front of properly.....

Oh, a Canadian joke!  How precious.

I guess we're done here.

[AFK]

S'ok Hoops, condsidering y'all watch what?  The Curling channel 24/7 up there, I'm sure you look forward to the commercials so you don't stab yourself in the fucking eye.

However, until you have actually experienced the huge volume jump in commercials (and it is not minor, I tried to explain, but I guess you didn't or couldn't read) you really have no true opinion on any of it!

Oh look, your metal disc isn't being swept in front of properly.....

Speaking as someone who grew up watching Canadian Television, you have no fucking clue of what you're talking about. 

[Cramulus]

it sounds like you don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics

I don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics.  I believe it's the government's job to protect us from invading forces.

Somebody has to keep corporations playing fair, or they simply won't.

I'm reminded of how General Mills was presenting Cheerios as if it was a form of medicine. the FDA stepped in and said "If you're going to make a medical claim, you do have to go through a clinical trial."

I'm pretty sure the FCC already regulates radio commercial volume - why not TV as well? I had a radio show very briefly, and we had to keep watching the volume meter to make sure it was within a certain range. On the radio, you can actually get fined for suddenly blasting your listeners with high volume sounds.

I gotta admit I'm a bit surprised at the number of people here who are defensive of having to adjust the volume every time a commercial comes on. I mean it's not like this is a free speech issue. But the US government isn't in good favor right now so everything they does seems like WTF IS THIS SHIT

my reasoning is this: you're already doing the least possible amount of activity available to you.  If having to turn down the volume (which was probably much higher than needed or is healthy) is too much fucking work then you should probably just pack it up and get off the planet.  Helping americans become even more fucking lazy tv watchers gets under my skin a bit.

We don't want to do it ourselves so lets get the government to do it for us.

it sounds like you don't think it's the government's job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics
but it IS the government's job to make sure that we're "less lazy"


I don't really understand how not wanting to be blasted with sound = laziness

it's not like the threshold between Living Vegetable and Hercules will get any narrower by making people to adjust the volume 4+ times every 30 minutes.

and it's not like anybody's saying waaaah it's too much work to turn down the TV... it's more like, why should we be subjected to these annoying marketing tactics in the first place? You can't even hold a conversation over some commercials.

come on Cram, thinking it's not the governments job to protect us from annoying marketing tactics does not translate to advocating for the government to make sure we're less lazy.

knowing the sorts of things you usually post, I have to call willful misinterpretation on that.

If you can't hold a conversation over the commercials, you probably have the volume up too high during the program too.

your post indicated that you think the government is "Helping americans become even more fucking lazy" - which to me sounds like you think government policies should be influenced by the potential impact on "public laziness". Personally, I don't think that should be a factor. If people want to be lazy, Columbia bless them.


"willful misinterpretation" - eat a bag of double dipped chocolate dicks




anyway, let me present an alternate universe


let's pretend that the new wave in marketing is fliers. In this bizarro USA, marketers visit your house each night and slip some commercial inserts under your door. Every day, you go to your car, and there are 15 sheets of paper jammed underneath your windshield. The government passes a law saying you can't do this, or maybe you're only allowed to put up 1 flier per evening. The logical counterargument is "what, are you too lazy to remove a few sheet of paper from your windshield? That shit takes like 3 seconds." laziness isn't the point - the point is that the tactic was wasteful, annoying, and intrusive.  If everybody in the country is annoyed by it, (notice nobody is saying "I love loud commercials") why shouldn't the government do something to reel it in?

[Cain]

I love loud commercials.

Well, not love.  It's more like a long term infatuation...but whatever.

[Jasper]

Important to never forget that corporations are profit maximizers.  They the hounds of mammon, and none but the dread Usgov can hold them at bay.