Is that my Phone Ringing?

You are driving along, and all of a sudden you hear your cell phone ring. Wait, is that your cell phone? Hopefully you have your hands-free device all plugged in and you aren't scrambling to find your phone when you realize the ringing is just on the radio.

You may have also pulled over looking to get out of the way of an ambulance, then realized the sirens were coming from a song or a radio ad. I've even heard car crash noises on the radio that have made me step on the brakes.

Distracting noises on the radio is the latest "What's Bugging You."

Janet Stuelpner is a viewer from New Canaan. She wrote in to tell me sirens and car noise bug her. She says "I think that advertisers should be more careful in their choice of sound when making an ad for the radio. Some things just don't lend themselves to the car radio when in motion. This is the kind of thing that will drive listeners to Sirius or XM radio where there are no commercials."

My photographer and I did a little experiment. We drove around in our news car over several days with the camera rolling on the radio. The first day we did it non stop for an hour, the second day, only half a hour. I have to admint both days we flipped around a bit, but only during songs we knew had no sirens or bells in them. In that time, we didn't hear any commercials or songs with sirens. However, we did hear one commercial with cell phone rings and another with a car horn.

Advertisers are probably aware of the scare tactic of the siren. Advice I found online from the Washington State Association of Broadcasters warns advertisers that though there isn't a law against such sound effects, it doesn't necessarily make it okay in every circumstance to use them.

The FCC has a rule (former Section 73.4240; deleted effective 11-28-83) which prohibits the use of "sirens and like emergency sound effects in broadcast announcements."

Local radio stations typically play the ads that come to them unless they are offensive or indecent. Eric McDonald is the Program Director at Fairfield County's 96.7 the Coast. He says the only thing the FCC enforces in relation to content is indecency.

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre of London warns advertisers against certain sound effects. RACC advises that sound effects of ambulances, police sirens, screeching tyres, car horns, vehicle collisions etc. are used ‘in context,’ ie. where relevant to the advertised product or advertisement scenario and in cases where listeners can reasonably expect them to be, or recognise them as, part of an advertisement.

Where draft scripts indicate such sound effects, we advise agencies and stations that extreme care in production is needed to help ensure that the sound effect is not likely to create a safety hazard to those listening whilst driving. In practical terms, this care could take the form of ensuring that the sound effects are brief, muted and under accompany voiceover(s).

The Radio Authority and a few stations themselves have received some listener reaction about a police siren sound effect which appeared on its own at the beginning of a national advertisement broadcast in July.

You can find people complaining about sirens in ads all over the internet. Here people would like a law. Here people would like a law against certain sound effects.

Here is a New York Times article on thinking your cell phone is ringing when it isn't. Another chatroom of ad-noise haters. And just for fun, a forum for commericals people hate for whatever reason.

However, if you are driving and hear a siren, don't assume its the radio.

In Connecticut the law demands that regardless of the the way you are traveling, you must pull parallel to the right as far as possible and come to a complete stop until the emergency vehicle has passed.