Re: Loud noises???

[Patte Rosebank]

Here’s another one: the Time Signal.

From the time I was a toddler, I remember being terrified by it. I had to get my feet off the floor, jam my fingers into my ears, close my eyes, and hum to drown out any possibility of hearing it. This was a real problem, since my grandfather and my dad both listened to CBC Radio, which, to this day, broadcasts the National Research Council Time Signal, just before 1:00 p.m. At least they only do it for about 30 seconds now, instead of the full minute they used to.

It’s worse with BBC Radio (which I listened to when I lived in England, and now, online). They broadcast a Time Signal (albeit at a slightly higher pitch than the CBC one) at the top of every hour. Even the News theme tune on BBC World incorporates it. At least the BBC Radio “pips”, as they call them, are only for 5 seconds.

I can tolerate these sounds now, but only just. They still make my fight-or-flight response poke its head round the corner to say, “Hullo! Do you need me?”

I wonder if my sensitivity to Time Signals is because, as a C-section baby, the first sounds I heard during the traumatic moment when I was “from my mother’s womb untimely ripp’d” were the beeps of the monitoring equipment.

REPORT ABUSE