H.E.A.R.ing Awareness
Don't let hearing loss take your music away forever.
By Jennifer Leggio

In 1984, bassist Kathy Peck was quickly cruising toward success in music. As a member of San Francisco-based punk band The Contractions, Peck was playing large national venues and gigging with groups like The Go-Go’s, Duran Duran and Boingo. She was thrilled to have finally reached a point where she could play her music loud with thousands of shrieking teenage fans in attendance. However, that loud music and those shrieking fans also meant the end of her music career.

“The music combined with the screams of all of those little girls left me with a three-day attack of tinnitus,” Peck said. “I never recovered.”

However, the death of her music career begat a nonprofit (which in turn begat another 5,000 other things, but that's a whole different story). Peck, along with local physician Flash Gordon, M.D., created H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers), an organization that strives to prevent hearing loss and tinnitus among musicians and music fans, with a special focus on teens. Her organization even provides free, confidential hearing screening tests for anyone who thinks they have suffered hearing loss. Education is the first step in hearing loss prevention, she said.

Peck’s hearing was so drastically affected that she required hearing aids for nearly 10 years and people had to speak into a small microphone when talking to her. She even learned sign language. “I realized later, when I became better educated about tinnitus, that I might have prevented some of the damage if I’d just worn earplugs,” she said. “Even the cheapest earplugs could have saved me from long-term damage.” Hence Peck’s mission: To educate the music-related masses about the importance of hearing protection and to kill the superficial fear that wearing earplugs is not cool.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, there was such a stigma associated with wearing ear plugs; you were a wimp if you wore them,” Peck said. “People need to understand that prevention is the only protection.”

The only reason Peck’s hearing substantially improved was because she also suffered from a hereditary hearing loss problem that made her a candidate for surgery. “But musicians and music fans who suffer noise induced hearing loss are not eligible for surgery, and will never get the lost hearing back. They need to be educated.”

Peck explained that hearing loss occurs when loud noises or vibrations cause damage or destruction to the cilia in the ear cavity. Hearing aids do not always help some sufferers of hearing loss because they merely amplify the cilia that are left – too much damage leaves nothing to amplify.

In order to reach its target audience, H.E.A.R. secures relationships with large music industry events, such as NAMM, and works with schools, music camps and festivals to further spread its message. The organization has expanded its outreach to DJs, dance clubs, mix artists and studio engineers. “We’ve worked with musicians whose talents are anywhere from heavy metal to Mozart,” she said. “We want anyone concerned with their hearing to come to us so they can stop further damage.”

The Internet serves as a formidable avenue for H.E.A.R.’s messages to reach the masses. More than just a Web site, HEARnet.com serves as an online education resource, including FAQs about hearing loss, an advice column called “Dear Crabby,” featured artists, albums and fundraising events. Because H.E.A.R. is a nonprofit and not federally or state funded, the organization also uses its Web site to push for donations and fundraising, and to publicize its own fundraising events.

“We’ve had benefit shows in the past featuring artists such as Perry Ferrell and DJ Quik. We even had Lars Ulrich as a spokesperson,” she said. (Lars? Speaking? Hard to imagine, but true.) “I’d like to work with some promoters to put together future events, to help us fund our projects and also further education.”

H.E.A.R. hasn’t stopped at the music community when it comes to spreading hearing education. The team has been active in helping the San Francisco Board of Supervisors enforce an earplug ordinance in clubs and late night music venues. Peck’s goal is to help clubs be more compliant with the ordinance.

“For 15 years, it hasn’t been our mission to pass a law, it’s been more of an educational thing. But since this ordinance has come about, I feel it’s H.E.A.R.’s responsibility to continue to provide the service,” Peck said. “To me, musicians and clubs are precious and I think we need to support our community. That is what we’re about; keeping the live music going, but protecting the hearing in the process.”

Jennifer Leggio is a former daily news writer who now leads a double life as an account manager at Los Gatos-based Dovetail Public Relations, and as the public relations/promotions director at Powerslave.com, a Web zine dedicated to the NorCal metal scene.