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A week or so before Deafening Sound first aired we sat down with its producer, Joe Turco (pictured to the right in his office), to get a little background information on the program. Here's what he had to say.
Where did the idea for this program come from?
I got the idea originally a couple years ago from George Frederick in our audio department. He's very aware of how sound levels can adversely affect hearing, and he shared an article about NIHL in the entertainment industry. It was really quite dramatic. Then I began thinking about how everything is going to digital sound and about how loud sounds were going to be affecting the general population. I started doing some research and was astounded that nobody seemed to be talking about this.
Was there anything you had to leave out that you might've wished you could leave in?
Actually, it ended up looking pretty much like my original vision for the program, and that doesn't always happen. I did want to add something about noise-induced hearing loss in the workplace and industry, but that's not in the piece because we couldn't find a company that'd allow us to tape there. We worked with OSHA on this, but everybody was afraid of potential lawsuits. That ended up being okay, though, because the way the program took shape, it felt more important to focus on reaching families with kids. I wanted to put something in about agriculture-related hearing loss, too, but that's working out okay because of the Statewide piece I'm doing on that topic.
Do you have a favorite part of the program?
My favorite part of the program, the most dramatic for me, was the information about noisy toys, in the sense that until I did my research, I never even thought about it, and I kind of think most parents don't. Some toys are incredibly loud, and there are very few standards.
How did you manage to get footage of so many current or former punk rockers?
We wanted to shoot Kathy Peck at the H.E.A.R. headquarters in San Francisco, and she let us know that Jello Biafra, Dr. Sludge, Flash Gordon others would be at their place for a web chat while we were in town shooting. So we just took advantage fo that opportunity to do a few interviews.
Is there anything else you'd like to say about Deafening Sound?
I want to make sure to mention the work done by Pay Aylward and Steve Gottlieb, who both did a LOT of good work on this project. Literally, it couldn't have been done without them. Also, the program was funded in part with a grant from the Central Educational Network, which wanted to make sure the program had national scope. As a result, hopefully, there's a very good chance this program will be distributed nationally to PBS stations.
Video 27: Credits
Credits
