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Uploaded: Friday, December 3, 2010, 3:40 PM
Updated: Monday, December 6, 2010, 10:13 AM
Eshoo gets feds to cork loud TV ads
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by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
It seems that Democrats and Republicans in Washington D.C. can agree on at least one thing these days: advertisers need to do something about their annoyingly loud TV commercials.
A bill by local congresswoman Anna Eshoo that will keep people from being "blasted at" by TV commercials was passed by congress yesterday. The bill is called the CALM Act (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation).
"While this is far from the biggest issue we face, it will mean one less daily annoyance in our lives," said ad bill sponsor Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, in a press release.
"Consumers will no longer have to experience being blasted at," Eshoo said. "It's a simple fix to a huge nuisance."
The bill awaits a signature from the president before it will become law. Within a year, advertisers would be required to adopt technology that will keep the volume of commercials no higher than the TV programs they accompany.
"TV programs use a variety of sound levels to build dramatic effect. But advertisements have been neither subtle nor nuanced," Eshoo said. "My bill reduces commercial volume, allowing them to only be as loud as the decibel level of regular programming."
Eshoo's office said in the press release that the Federal Communications Commission had been receiving complaints about loud TV commercials since the 1960s and the FCC has ranked it a top complaint over the last few years.
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Posted by MV, a resident of the Jackson Park neighborhood, on Dec 3, 2010 at 5:10 pm Is this really local news?
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Posted by Mr. Big, a resident of the Jackson Park neighborhood, on Dec 4, 2010 at 4:11 pm One other point probably never brought up is the wear and tear on remote controls to lower the volume when the commercials come on and then turning the volume back up when the program starts. Or, mute on... mute off.
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Posted by Daniel DeBolt, Mountain View Voice Staff Writer, on Dec 6, 2010 at 11:33 am
Daniel DeBolt is a member (registered user) of Mountain View Online To the person who asked if this is local news, I'd like to point out that Eshoo is Mountain View's congressional representative, which makes just about anything she does of interest to Mountain View residents.
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Posted by Mr. Mountain View, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2010 at 2:35 pm Now I understand... congresswoman Anna Eshoo has been making all the horrible decisions because she was distracted by loud commercials on her TV. I hope the new law will help her pay attention to what is really going on around her and help her understand what reality is........
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Posted by vfree, a resident of the Waverly Park neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2010 at 3:07 pm After 50 years of complaints they take action! It would have been sooner if there was a way to tax the decibels. Keep in mind they now run healthcare.
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Posted by David M, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Dec 6, 2010 at 4:03 pm In other news, the Congress hasn't produced any appropriations bills for fiscal year 2011:
Web Link
As of December 6, no bills other than continuing resolutions have even made it to the stage of a conference report. Instead, the Congress spends its time quibbling about loud television commercials. Great job, really.
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Posted by Kathy, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2010 at 6:32 am Agree that anything Eshoo does should be of interest to her constituents, the better question is, why are our representatives spending one second of their time on something so unimportant as TV ads when there are so many critical issues facing us, the housing crisis, unemployment, healthcare, the HSR disaster, the list goes on. Keep up the good work Anna.
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Posted by Voter, a resident of the Cuernavaca neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2010 at 1:43 pm I LOVE this. Yes, it not the biggest problem, but I'm glad we have reps who know how to do more than one thing at a time and I'm glad that something is happening that will affect my daily life for the better. HOORAY! Its low hanging fruit, but low hanging fruit has gotta get picked too.
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Posted by mistervideo, a resident of another community, on Dec 19, 2010 at 10:41 am The FCC is the responsibility of Congress. Expecting our elected representatives to avoid that responsibility to deal with "bigger issues" is asking them to shirk their responsibility. Its all got to get done. We just adopted a new digital broadcasting system and this is the appropriate time to address issues like the loudness of commercials in over-the-air television because the way audio is transmitted, decoded and reproduced is new.
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Posted by mistervideo, a resident of another community, on Dec 19, 2010 at 10:41 am The FCC is the responsibility of Congress. Expecting our elected representatives to avoid that responsibility to deal with "bigger issues" is asking them to shirk their responsibility. Its all got to get done. We just adopted a new digital broadcasting system and this is the appropriate time to address issues like the loudness of commercials in over-the-air television because the way audio is transmitted, decoded and reproduced is new.
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Posted by k, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Jun 10, 2011 at 10:59 am Thank you Anna. If you live in a house, you probably could care less, but for those who live in apartments where walls are paper thin this is a blessing.
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