Can I get at least the news agencies to please stop blaring loud sirens?
I was driving back from St. Louis this weekend, 300+ miles to Nashville. It was sometime after dark after a long drive I’m watching tail lights in front of me and people in sports cars purchased during the pandemic decide to shoot by me at 100+mph on interstate 24.
TL;DR – just a request, you think I’m mad? Not really.
Listening to Google Assistant’s picks on “tell me the news,” and had been on a mumble mumble level podcast which I had to crank, only to be greeted abruptly by shrieking sirens and emergency truck horns as the next podcasted news brief tried to set the stage for some story about a fire.
Let me tell you, suddenly blasting an emergency vehicle’s blaring sirens and honking horn while you’re doing in excess of 65mph, at night, 5+ hours into driving (there were stops, slowdowns due to torrential rain, and side quests, I wasn’t slow poking it) with a death grip on the wheel because you’re being passed by a bunch of army base kids in faux muscle cars is a really good way to kill your listeners.
It’s something that could pretty easily be solved with technology, but it seems like this is something that any news agency, media company, or 5yo would have figured out by now – don’t suddenly scream at your listeners unless you’re wanting to cause an accident.
This is going to cause a wreck, doesn’t need to cause a wreck, and is quite recognizable by any sound engineer worth their salt. Got a blaring siren? Mute it. I don’t think too much tech needs to come into this, but yeah, one pass processing while in driving mode might be required if news agencies can’t figure out don’t blare sirens to listeners who probably are driving.
