This idiot, whose name I can only assume doesn’t matter to anyone (and I mean anyone), is some American politician who represents some people somewhere. Whatever, she’s an idiot. From this story:

• Irritated by loud commercials, Rep. —- ——, D-Calif., drafted the measure after discovering it was a common complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.

This asshole was so pissed about the sound levels of commercials in the programs she likes that she decided to ‘look into this,’ and then discovers something shocking, other people don’t like abrupt changes in volume either. And the more she dug into it, she found this is a god damn epidemic being experienced by everyone in America. People – probably real nice, patient human beings, I’m sure - have even complained to the FCC! Well, there it is, it’s time for a change.

Just to break it down a little tech-wise; the noticably-worse-quality local commercials are run independently from the shows, by different people, and the people who create the network commercials are different than the people who create the shows, and no one’s even sniffin’ the people who are running the stuff before it finally makes it to your TV - and these people, who are probably just getting paid just over minimum wage to toggle a switch here and there don’t have every sound level of every commercial memorized, and yes, they should all be normalized at the same level, but hey, guess what, they’re made by different people, with different equipment, who have learned what is the appropriate sound levels differently. So, I’m sorry, yes, you’re commercials are going to be a little louder than the show.

The worst part is that this idiot politician and most of the people who have complained to the FCC probably think this is some sort of conspiracy by advertisers to force their message on their audience victims. You want better consistency? Get rid of the DVR, this will expose more people to the products, they’ll go buy the products, the advertisers will buy more time, for more money, and the people who mix all the stuff together will get paid more, and therefore the jobs will be more in demand, so the people doing it will take it more seriously. But no. Let’s get the government involved to force broadcasters to payout money they barely have, so they’ll have to fire more people, so your commercials sound more like your shows… fucking idiot. I’m sorry you have to use your remote control more. How annoying for you. Wow, this is an F’ing waste of time.

• Some experts have said they are unsure whether viewers will notice much difference if the bills become law. Different volume levels can be part of storytelling. And some commercials may just seem noisy because they follow a quiet, intense scene.