Once, a “disc jockey” was someone who played records and talked on the radio, not someone with a turntable and an attitude in a nightclub.
And many, if not most of us cranked the
earphone volume pretty high. The loud music spurred us to the required
magnitude of enthusiasm when the mic opened.
As a result, many of us now have at
least some hearing loss.
Blame it on age. Blame it on all
those years of cheap high-volume headphones.
What now? Get a hearing exam, the
results of which you’ll probably know in advance. Then get hearing aids,
which cost more than you made in a year spinning Stacks of Wax for Jills and
Jacks at WJFN in Poquott, New York.
Disc Jockeys aren’t the only ones.
Operators of hydraulic hammers and other construction and musical equipment,
motorcycle couriers and airport ground crews are also high on the list of the
affected.
You go see an audiologist. You get
fitted. You leave the office five grand lighter.
Audiologists, like chiropractors, foot
doctors, homeopaths and other variations of faith healers and motivational
speakers from pyramid schemes will want to upsell you.
Since the tests are generally covered
by your health insurance there isn’t much upselling to do.
The big money is in devices. And mostly
they’re not covered.
Congress has long been considering
allowing the FDA to recommend over the counter low-priced hearing aids.
The FDA can’t do that on its own.
But it can clear and has cleared
personal sound amplification products, at least some of them.
These are gizmos that look like hearing
aids, work more or less like hearing aids, and are widely advertised with the
required “warning” THIS IS NOT A HEARING
AID.
If it quacks like a duck…
It’s true that some people need those
audiology tests and of them, some -- probably fewer -- need “real” or
prescription hearing aids.
But for most of us, the PSAPs, as
they’re called, do just fine. The best advice around is to avoid the ones
that are too cheap. A little more money and you’ll get a device that’s
programmed to emphasize the frequencies of the human voice and reject
background noise.
But we’re talking $50 an ear here, not
$2500. And most of the PSAPs come with a 30 day trial period. It takes
longer than that to tame the squeal they all make when you first try them.
Shrapnel:
--Okay, Daylight Saving Time has
arrived. One reason for having it is so 9-to-5-ers can go home before
dark. Are there any 9-to-5-ers left?
--Speaking of which, it was a banner
year. We found no instances of our pet peeve about the time change, pluralizing
“saving.” Congratulations, America!
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome
to them. ®
Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com
© WR 2021
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