Life Threatening Crapola: Dangerious Radio Ads

Real life: Driving on a CA freeway, 65mph, turn signal to change lanes, look at my rear and side view mirrors, in preparation. It may sound complicated, but all this is a perfectly executed, natural (not thought out), sequence. My final move is to turn my head to view the lane I intend to move into - at an angle that somehow still gives me peripheral vision to both the lane I'm in and the lane I intend to be in. Perfect.

As I move over to the next lane, I hear a car horn. I abandon my attempt to change lanes, a bit startled and go through this perfect sequence again. I'm dumbfounded, my eyes didn't fail me...my ears did. It was my radio, rather, an advertisement on radio.

Instead of the crapola rules about what's "morally" acceptable to hear on radio, I think it's better for the FCC to really clamp down on real life safety hazards found on everyday radio.

Funny, a web search on this topic yielded results about advertising rules in the UK. I have yet to find one (it must exist) applying to the US market (the spelling alone shows it's "British"):

Advertisements must not include sounds likely to create a safety hazard. Distracting or potentially alarming sound effects such as sirens, horns, screeching tyres, vehicle collisions and the like must be treated cautiously; they may be dangerous to those listening, especially whilst driving. In particular, they should avoid being featured at the start of advertisements, before listeners are clear about what they are listening to.

I'd say add the following to the list of potentially distracting sound effects:

• a phone ringing, distinctive cell/mobile phone ring
• that "warning chime" cars give off to notify you of a problem

Enough said.