The Trump Administration in the US has recently instructed the HHS and FDA to more tightly regulate advertisements for prescription drugs on TV and Radio.
Many in the Radio industry are concerned about how any new regulations would affect Radio, being that stations and radio networks depend a lot on pharma ads for revenues.
Many times at night, while listening to the radio, I hear a plethora of commercials for various prescription drugs, including advice to people to look for certain symptoms they might have that could indicate they need to be prescribed certain drugs to combat those symptoms.
There are similar ads on TV, the internet, and also in print media as well.
I don't hear a TON of the drug ads on Radio -- most of the spots I hear at night are PSA's for adopting foster kids, being a better dad, or to combat hunger. I used to hear a LOT of 'Kars For Kids' ads, but they started disappearing about 4 or 5 years ago. The adoption, fostering, combatting hunger, and the 'be a better dad' ads are run by the Ad Council, a non-profit organization with some ties to the Federal government, which runs PSA's and public interest spots.
Here's a link to the Ad Council website, which has MP3's of some of the Radio ads one can often hear on many stations, especially at night.:
The Ad Council came up with many interesting campaigns that many Americans may remember: Smokey Bear, 'A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste', McGruff the Crime Dog, and 'Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk', and many others. You can read about that here.:
Although I haven't heard loads of Pharma ads on radio, I've heard enough of them to know that Radio makes a lot of money off of them.
According to RadioInk, Radio makes a lot of revenue off Big Pharma spots. RadioInk reports that the amount of revenue that Radio has earned from Big Pharma ads increased by 59% between 2018 and 2022, with several Big Pharma companies being in the Top Ten advertisers to Radio in general.
Here's the 'Top Ten' for the first week of September, 2025.:
Radio industry people are concerned that if HHS and the FDA enact tougher regulations on drug advertisement wording, including longer and more complete warnings of potential side effects, it could make such advertisements impossible to run on radio, and consequently it could cut into Radio revenues.
And Radio revenues have been problematic, especially since the Great Recession and the Pandemic.
Here's a link to the RadioInk article on this issue.:
CUTTING COMMERCIALS TO FIT, USING DIGITAL SOUND EDITING
I can see how any new regulations insisting on having Pharma ads list every possible side effect could really cut into the ad revenue for radio. As it is now, sometimes the side effect listings in such commercials are sped up, the same way other disclaimers are sped up in Radio ads.
Trying to fit a lot of information into just 30 second or 60 second ads for radio is nothing new. When I worked in Radio, we made CD's that were nothing but various Radio ads. The company I worked for would have stations run them in lieu of payment for the hits CDs, automation playlists and consulting. The company I worked for would get the ad money for the stations playing the commercials.
Sometimes in putting the commercials on the CD I would have to speed up the commercial, to make it fit the 30 second or 60 second run time. Sometimes I would have to slow it down. This was because the studio where the commercial was made did not always make the commercial fit the radio standard, 30 or 60 second limit. These commercials were often made in big studios in LA or New York, so the idea that any big market production company would cut spots that were 25 seconds, 33 seconds or 68 seconds was a real head scratcher.
So it often made a lot of work for the sound engineers like myself. We had to figure out how to either cut down the sound file to fit 30 or 60 seconds, or stretch it out to fit. This was done electronically, on the computer sound editing program. Sometimes you could cut spaces between words, to shorten the commercial to fit, or add pauses in between words to make it a bit longer if needed.
If you couldn't do it that way, you would 'squish' or 'stretch' the sound file -- or a section of it -- without the sound literally speeding up or slowing down. The term for this process was 'time scrunch', where you had the editing program compress or stretch the sound file digitally. If you 'time scrunched' a sound file too much either way, it would sound jittery.
I've heard this jitter effect, even today, on newscasts, and sometimes on commercials... the jittery sound of a commercial or newscast being time scrunched to fit the 30 second, one minute or two minute time slot. So I guess some bizarre tendencies in the Radio business haven't change since 2006.
LONGER COMMERCIALS, OR NO COMMERCIALS
If the government regulates Pharma ads to include every drug side effect, I'm not sure that time scrunching would be allowed (if it makes the information hard to actually hear), and I'm not sure it would work, if it is used to attempt to keep the commercials within a 30 or 60 minute time period, because of the extra info needed in a much longer disclaimer. It would, of course, depend on the amount of extra side effect information that would have to be included on the commercial.
So, if these new, proposed regulations go into effect, Radio will either lose money, or it will be a lot more work for the sound engineers. One possible solution would be to sell 45 second or 90 second Pharma spots, to allow space for all the listed potential side effects. That, of course, would mean that the Pharma companies would have to pay more for the longer commercials, or the radio companies will have to charge less for the longer commercials -- something that wouldn't be palatable for Radio.
Regardless, if this proposed regulatory apparatus goes through, it will have a definite effect on how Radio runs the ads.
Presumably, this proposed regulation would also apply to the internet, where I see frequent ads for Pharma meds. So, changes could be on the way no matter where you see or hear Pharma advertisements. And probably similar ads on TV would also be affected.
REACTION MAY ALREADY BE HAPPENING IN THE AD INDUSTRY
Just recently, a few days before posting this article, I heard a commercial for a medication during or after a football game, and it seemed that half of it was disclaimers, cautions, etc. It was worded well, but the length of the disclaimer made me wonder if perhaps some of the Pharma ad makers are already responding to the proposed rules that may be coming down the pike.
IN OTHER LIFE....
In other life, I've been getting back into playing my bagpipes, and trying to finish my writing 'work-in-progress', a fiction novella that has been percolating for over a year.
As far as my bagpipes, it's been a challenge. I hadn't played them in over a year. Usually I play them for about a week before a major holiday, as I would entertain family with them at my Aunt's house on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Because of some medical issues, my Aunt didn't have Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, so I went over a year without even touching the pipes.
About 3 to 4 weeks ago I decided that it would be a good idea to start playing them again. The first thing that happened was that I discovered that 3 of the 4 synthetic chanter reeds I had were now worn out. It turns out that plastic bladed, double reeds have a lifetime. That meant that until I got a couple new synthetic reed replacements, it was back to natural cane.
Thanks Cuppa for the pic. Photo courtesy Chris Styron.
Now, cane reeds can be cantankerous, which is why I switched to synthetic chanter reeds to begin with. The synthetic ones were more consistent, and they also were easier to blow. But, because the synthetic reeds were now worn out, I dug into a stash of 'new', old stock reeds I'd bought at Hector Russell in 2003 or 2004. I found one that was stamped 'Easy'. I inserted it into the chanter, and merely heated it with my mouth, without wetting it. Then I put the chanter into my pipes and blew them up. It tuned well, and amazingly, it wasn't too cantankerous or too hard to blow.
And, to my surprise, it is 'blowing in' well. New reeds usually take a week or so of 'blowing in', to where they ease up a bit, and become more consistent in response, and more dependable.
And, to my surprise, it is 'blowing in' well. New reeds usually take a week or so of 'blowing in', to where they ease up a bit, and become more consistent in response, and more dependable.
I also found that I could fix one of the worn out synthetic chanter reeds (using some tape and a small 'bridle' to shorten the active part of the blades), so I have a backup reed, too.
At the same time, I discovered that if you go a full year without playing, your lips give out quickly -- and you need your lips to hold onto the blowpipe and keep the air going where it's supposed to. My lungs / diaphragm also needed to get back into shape. My left arm is OK with keeping the bag steady with the air, but it probably needs to shape up, too.
All those things that were second nature when I was playing weekly need to come back.
It almost feels like I'm re-starting from scratch.
THE TUNE THAT WAS BANNED BY THE BRITISH ARMY
It is use it or lose it time, I guess. So, I've been regaining my ability to play the Skye Boat Song, The 42nd Highlanders March (Boston Caledonian 1935 Setting), and I've learned a slow air that my mother liked, but I hadn't learned before she died -- 'Lochaber No More', the only pipe tune that was banned by the British Army.
Why would the British Army ban a pipe tune? Because it is a sad tune (albeit a beautiful one), and the Scottish Regiments in India and elsewhere had bad morale when that tune was played by the pipers. So, for a few years, the British Army banned pipers from playing it. The tune apparently has lyrics that describe the feeling of Scots having to leave their homeland, sometimes with the thought that they may never return.
The combination of the words to the folk tune from which Lochaber No More was derived, along with the sad nature of the music, apparently didn't help the Scots soldiers when they were stationed tens of thousands of miles away from home. My mother liked Lochaber No More when she heard it off a CD that I had, of Donald MacLeod playing it. Sadly, I never was able to learn the tune well enough to play it for her before she died.
Here is a music vid clip of Donald MacLeod playing one of the two best 'settings' of Lochaber No More (a 'setting' is pipe-speak for 'version'). Donald MacLeod taught my pipe major, Angus Ironside, who -- in turn -- taught me most of what I know about the bagpipes.:
I mentioned The 42nd Highlanders' March earlier. It's one of the first bagpipe tunes I ever heard, and did it catch my 3 or 4 year-old ear when Grandma put on my Dad's old Boston Caledonian Pipe Band 78's! I was hooked. Here's a vid clip of the actual 42nd Highlanders regiment playing it during a homecoming parade a couple years ago in Perth, Scotland.:
Well, that's about it for this installment. The weather has been staying fairly warm, with the daytime temperatures in the 70's (20's C), and the night time temperatures are not too cold for biking around the neighborhood. I don't look forward to Winter, but it's still a couple months off.
Peace,
C.C. Sunday, September 21st, 2025.
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