OnQ; 2003

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What you always wished your health plan would be quality choice access to specialists without a referral. For more information. 1 8 8 8 3 8 3. And by the members. Next you turn up the volume because we have a story that you need to hear. That's right tonight in the first installment of a special series Just for you baby. The murders include me. We'll take a look at why so many of you are heading to the audiology and something else you'll want to hear tonight a sound that's really starting to go mainstream in this area hip hop. We'll take a look at the music the culture and tell you about a big hip hop event going on in Pittsburgh and getting ready for spring planting. Not too sure that's why we're shopping for seeds and we're selling them to indoors with us and look at things differently. Starts right now. More

welcomed on cue. Tonight we're going to help you get a head start on planning your garden this spring. On cue gardening contributed the ghost who will be here a little later. And the music the fashion and the culture of hip hop as it comes to the forefront in Pittsburgh. On cue music contributor Phil Harris will be stopping by for that. But first Stacy Smith is going to help kick things off with a look at tonight's cover story Stacy. All right thank you Chris. Tonight we look at the generation many thought would stay young forever. However age is finally catching up with the baby boomers millions of children born after World War 2 and into the Kennedy era are now in their late 30s their 40s and perhaps even their

early 50s. Over the next several months we will take a look at issues many baby boomers are now facing head on. Now Carol Lee is here with the first in a series of reports and according to the birth records I qualify as a baby boomer. Why did 62 is the cutoff. Yeah so I'm there so we're going to talk about that if you believe that. Thanks. Here's a list. Careers finances medical problems retirement elderly parents. This is a laundry list. The situations of baby boomers deal with every day. Well tonight we focus on a health problem specifically hearing loss. Now boomers all remember that buzz phrase that was buzzing around for a few years. Noise pollution. What did it do us any real harm. The experts say yes. And their message to the boomers and every generation is turn down the volume. Listen I just want to coordinate for next week for a trip to Charleston.

You might call Forty nine year old John fair of Mt. Lebanon. The typical baby boomer. He's hard working and industrious unlike many in his generation innovative and enterprising. John Jones for internet based businesses and that means he's constantly on the phone at the computer or at a meeting. Saturday I have one meeting. Strangely enough you know this is once a problem a gradual and progressive hearing loss of maybe even normal conversation is hard to understand and that affected both his business and personal. I'd be watching television myself. Unfortunately the old phrase that you don't know which I'm missing is very true. Here hi there. Are you doing. Because if you're missing something you don't know that it happened. So it's usually a family member that's going to get irritated with you or you know tired of you kind of saying what all the time you're not having any trouble getting the batteries in.

DR KATHERINE Palmer heads the audiology department at the University of Pittsburgh Eye and Ear Institute in Oakland. She says more and more baby boomers are coming in for a hearing test. Boomers are that generation of people born right after World War Two between the years of 1945 and 1962. And some of them are just getting all the up now and have enough hearing loss that they're noticing a problem. Baby boomers expose themselves to a lot of loud sounds. Actually any music that's that's too loud can hurt your hearing. And so there seems to be more exposure for that group. John believes his mild to moderate hearing loss is mostly hereditary. But even he admits that as a young man he may harm his peers by listening to music way too

loud. So how loud is too loud. Oh she has guidelines about that so if you go over 90 decibels for an eight hour day that's too loud in the workplace. That's a little bit misleading because usually with music it's not necessarily going to be an eight hour day and it may be much much louder than that so a much smaller incident can give you permanent hearing loss. But researchers say some people have lost their hearing after one rock concert which sounds good pulsate up to 130 decibels for several hours. But it doesn't have to be a rock concert. Over time music from powerful stereos and headphones lawn mowers snow blowers hand-held appliances and tall noisy deserts and tractors can match an assault against you and destroy delicate himself you know.

I mean if your car is shaking. Music is too loud and these cars are literally shaking on their their wheels. And what the driver and the people in the car find is oh we can tolerate it louder and louder Well that's because you're losing more and more hearing and the damage of noise induced hearing loss is permanent. But fortunately most loss can be helped through hearing aids. OK good job we're going to switch gears now. The research shows that people don't come into the clinic for about 10 years after they start to have hearing loss so it's about a decade that it takes for people to finally kind of make that move. But some of the baby boomers I think are making the move maybe a little bit more quickly because they're in these very demanding lifestyles. I took a few years for John to even think about wearing hearing aids after a bad experience with an earlier device. But the difference has been tremendous and the hearing aids are hardly noticeable. This is an example of a completely in the canal hearing aid which is it's good technology if you have a mild

to moderate loss it's attractive to people because it's so tiny it's not noticeable in what a person is going to do is they have to learn to put it in and out of their ear that's not that difficult. Pulling it out there's a little pull cord that takes it out of the ear in the ear hearing aids don't work for everyone behind the ear models are another option. I think of this is a baby boomer device because that's what they have that does that high frequency hearing loss it's not a lot of hearing loss but it's enough to start to get in their way of communicating especially in noise and was the situation. This is the disposable hearing aid in the custody hearing aids are also revolutionizing the hearing aid industry. They're going to work for you for about 40 days so it ends up costing about a dollar a day for the hearing aid. Then you throw me over the next packet. You're our John. Hearing aids have been again he'd given him the patients sounds of his family. Well for them that they feel listened to again you know for they just like from room to room they say

dad I say what. And they go you heard it you know and my wife and I like when we want to talk privately we can actually talk in library voices and you know she can hear me again rather than having to like get a card long with just a jab. So it's that's it's been great. Well Dr. Palmer has hopes one day for a procedure that would cure hearing loss that would be the process of how a hair cell regeneration. But it's still a long way off. Now if you're concerned about a possible hearing loss this could be your very first step especially for people who don't want to make a doctor's appointment right off the bat. You can actually test your hearing over the phone. Here's the number for 1 2 6 4 7 20 400. Again that's 4 1 2 6 4 7 24 100. Now

UPMC is I in your institute set up this program so that when your call is connected you hear a series of tones. If you don't hear all of the tones you should get further testing. In the meantime Stacie hearing aid technology technology is so rapidly transforming and changing. It's good that if you check in with an audiologist once a year because it just you know it's so rapid right now and what's happening it's just amazing how small some of these hearing aids are now. You know speaking of hearing aids we both know elderly people who say that they don't want to bother with it that it's too uncomfortable that they just can't get used to it. Do you think people in your baby boomer generation. How do you know if you qualify get your head of the board between 45 to 60 to qualify and Stacy will not give it up people I will not give it. But yes I am in the Baby Boomer generation so do you think we're going to be any more receptive to wearing hearing aids. Well there you know it as you said the elderly. They're resistant because it was gradual and they actually have a harder time bringing them in because they get used to the loss. With the baby boomers It seems

to be a vanity issue. They like something that's kind of high tech you can't really see there. They're resisting the thought that they're equating hearing loss with aging and baby boomers don't like to age. And children are the most adaptable to it. They'll take a hearing aid and they'll work with it right away so they're the easiest actually to work with. One of these hearing aids cost in the whole process of going through this. Well it depends and it's a big insurance issue right now and it's a big range now the disposable ones are $40 to last you 40 days. That's a dollar a day and it can go anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousand dollars. So you have to check and see right now like I said it is an insurance problem that a lot of insurance companies don't cover it. I suppose that the higher the cost probably also relates to how small the device is going to be. Exactly exactly and I mean they're talking about putting you know microchips in the air and all sorts of really interesting things and it's like he says moving so rapid that I think there will be a point in time where they're actually going to put a chip in or they're going to have the hair cell regeneration

it's they're working on it double time right now. Well coming up next the hip hop culture emerges in Pittsburgh and gardening expert Doug shows how to get summer plants started right now. But first a look at what's ahead tomorrow. Have you heard of the new now that stands for the new physical education. Tomorrow local physics teachers unite. Now they want to get our children out from behind the computer out from in front of the TV and back on the gymnasium floor medical research shows our kids need it. Now you don't often see women reviewing movies on television. Believe that too of a film and the Thursday live performance the alternative sound of a look at things differently tomorrow on cue. They grow hair in your ear Carol I guess they ought to be able to grow in your head somewhere.

All this new technology is fit for use of the status quo when it comes to music. Most people know there is a history of jazz here also. Rock and Roll call Chip and regionally a country flavor to slowly emerging now and alternative. Here's on cue music contributor Phil Harris to tell us all about it Phil. Thanks Chris. You know two years ago a hip hop artist took the Grammy Awards prestigious album of the year. It was The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill a nationally hip hop is the dominant culture of today's young people. But most people still don't see Pittsburgh as a hip hop kind of town. Well Rose Borden rose bud and in Pittsburgh newsweekly are helping bring hip hop to a mainstream audience. Tonight we look at the music and the culture of. Tell me this when

you want to make your prayers. Thank you for the culture. It's just it's a generation been here 30 years. I shot the bare rock n roll. That is the year 2001 and time marches on. So get ready for the hunger. She said OK if

you feel you want to go for the best whatever. Under the Banner of boisterous in their minds and same with a few. It's basically like different

mixes that come together that I like funky beat. To me it's about MCs like battling each other but people don't like the words not with the real thing. Everybody. The hip hop event we featured in that piece is called the

cipher. It's going on at Rosebud in the Strip District every Wednesday including tonight through the end of January. Break dancers hip hop fashion graffiti artists but the main event is a deejay spin off. The final round is on January 30 first Chris. And whoever wins will become the resident deejay for hip hop nights at Rosebuds. I can see this is kin Byrnes next big project I 40 years. These guys will be the Dizzy Gillespie because they're bringing something new the kind of bebop hip pop kind. It's the next step is I'm sure I think and I think for the last 20 years it's becoming slowly becoming the dominant culture it's everywhere and it's it's all through rock n roll music now that so many rock bands have a deejay and they they rap through the rap is a part of hip hop but not all of it is the people in your piece pointed out it's the dance it's the culture it's the music it's the rap it's the deejays it's all that and a lot more isn't right I mean Rap is just a small part of it. And I think that's maybe what has held it back in Pittsburgh anyway is that they can equate hip

hop with rap and rap is a small part and but hip hip hop culture is really just encompasses everything now. So who won this contest are you at liberty to say you know John Ross won the first round last week and I got to see. His his performance in it was fantastic. And then they'll be two more semifinal great a good hip hop performance. So they did they actually criteria. No I actually did it by audience response. Oh OK. Good old fashioned way no. You know people like it you know it must be good whoever got the loudest round of applause one. OK good. Well thank you fielder Well we appreciate your being here keep us up to date OK. Thank you. Have a snazzy Thank you sir. I'm coming from you. And up next tips on starting your spring planning in January right after this look at the community calendar. Well roll up your sleeves it's planting season. Now I Know What You're Thinking. Who wants to

start a garden in the dead of winter. Well on to garden contributor and Post columnist Doug poster is here to show us. And we don't even need our winter coats do it. That's right. Where do you get this dirt. There was what was left over from the greenhouse. We have the left over there. OK we're going to roll up. So. OK first of all it never really occurs to me to plant seeds and door now my father in law starts the tomato plants early. So we tell you to do this. Yeah I would start tomato plants a little later but a lot of things that grow from smaller seeds can be started now. And it's easy and it's cheap for people if they want to get started. The first thing I want to talk about is the light source. You can start it with a bright window sill but you have better luck with just an ordinary shop light like this one. Why can't you put it by the window sills the sun not doing well it depends on how things are going if it's cloudy and it has to be south facing. OK. I do know a lot of people that they grow their tomatoes that way but you can have better luck through the whole

winter. Do you see something like this shop like this is going to cost you less than $10 you get in any kind of any hardware store. The 40 watt bulbs are the ones you want or what usually comes in. I use two of these you know put together. You hang down in your basement by chains and as the plants get taller you just lift the lights up a little bit. OK a timer you know that you can get at the hardware store turn it on and off. Right you have to go about that. You might think oh I don't need a timer over to turn him on and off but you won't believe because I you know everyone tries it that way the first time. Now what type of flowers are you going to be planting and what flowers you could be planting at this well and you will hear it we're going to be planting foxglove and pansies. Anything really with with a really tiny seed that needs needs a good start. Petunias snapdragons patients and patients will be in there and that type of planting is what we're going to do but. The first thing

we need need to do is to get this dirt how we want it. OK where do we want to do the dirt besides getting the bugs out of them. We don't want to be sued. OK I don't want to be too wet. OK and this is a little too dry so we're going to add a little bit of water and we're going to put our hands in there. OK. With the bugs that I brought with me unfortunately. Hey listen I've changed diapers I can do this. We're just going to work it in a little bit AK good and the thing you want to remember is that you don't want it soaking wet. OK you just want it more but not dripping. Now we're we're Should people get the dirt should they go out get some potting soil or topsoil. Well you don't you don't want to use either potting soil or tough So this is called a seed starting mix you get anywhere you get in a garden store any giant We sell everything stores. Yes you can get it there. OK this looks pretty good right here it OK. If you mount it together it'll it'll it'll stick. But when you drop it it will fall apart it's pretty good. Let's fill up a little things here k

and. Get right to the top and I'm going to always wonder how much how far should you feel these things. Well right about there is good you want to be able to water it. I actually water mine by bottom watering it having something like this tray filled with water and just sitting the plant in it and it'll soak up water it needs. Then you don't overwater it better than I was trying to guess. OK now these are teeny tiny seeds and you know in here campaign you look at it this is a perennial that grows about six inches high it's a little white flowers white clips almost sounds like a baby boomer disease. And you guys are going to see these seeds but we can see how small those are OK. They are tiny. I lost an entire packet of petunias to one sneeze once you have to be careful that was that was four dollars worth of seeds and I got about two plants out of it and we're going to do if you can you can want to tap those right out of that container and then you should you put it here I mean it well that's no use going

to move around yeah you know when you get it up in there I did we're not going to we're not going to cover so this will be don't cover it went up to see it in there. That's all right. OK. If we sneeze all be gone OK. And yet to make good contact with the soil we just uses it just presto we don't want to program because this is a kind of seed like impatience to write that need light to germinate. OK they can pop up and then the most important thing now when they start to pop up. Do you do anything to help them along cover or maybe a little bit or you just let them do their Let them do their thing until they get big enough to handle OK and every plan is different and what's big enough to handle and you kind of know when you'll see it when you start to pull one out and you split up I would take the whole pot out OK and start to split up those routes and plan them individually. Let's talk about your soil mix and the things that you put together in the soil. For this I mean we have the fish emulsion and well this is what we use We're not going to open an eye we're not going to never open the fish emulsion inside the studio that's there serious Yeah

kind of running OK. But this will keep the plants growing and they'll really go nuts on it and it's a natural additive. Yes and it's cheap. OK and it's a concentrate. This is five bucks worth of fertilizer. This is going to last you an entire season. Ok it's like one tablespoon per gallon. Great but the one thing is you know when you're doing your house plants it kind of drives the cat crazy. OK is there something to remember that I would get about on the greenhouse and out in the garden it's fine. Now you mention keeping these plants going. Now you are here in the fall and we talked about harvesting harvesting seeds and for people who really don't do that how do you. Aside from going to the greenhouses or the you know we can buy everything here stores. How else can you get seeds. Well most people the starter seeds in the in the greenhouse or down in the basement will get tons and tons of catalogs this time of year I'm sure you've got tons of catalogs. You go to one garden shop you're on the list. Exactly. This is the time of year when you can spend some time and look through all those

catalogs I really enjoy and I think a lot of gardeners do really enjoy reading through the catalogs and getting the best deals right. It's very very diverse What what kind of seed you can get you know get the same variety. One place 100 seeds for a buck 75. 15:00 another place for 250. And when the seed is that small you much rather have fifteen hundred. That's right. When you sneeze you get 500 plants out of it. Well Jack thank you for being here you know this is for folks that have these lights at home this is perfect so get out there and try it now you do have a website that folks can go on and get some more information all the information we talked about here is on the website it's Post-Gazette dot com. And then backslash garden where you can find the garden thing from there you can also ask questions there too if you know the answer I will answer and people that are there in this current form will answer him for me. Yeah it's a good Friday the gardeners all stick together. We're all trying to fight these pill bugs and now we have some closing words from Chris and

Stacey and I know some people try to grow things like that or get arrested for it but I don't know from the FBI with the look of those lights. A reminder for our music fans that tune into on cue tomorrow means it's time to showcase more local talent during our first musical performance. We'll be featuring alternative sounds of sporadic. I got it you got to say it this one. Also a reminder for you on cue is rebroadcast weeknights at 11:30 and weekday afternoons at 12:30. And we'll see you back here live weeknights and 7:30 Goodnight everyone good night broadcast from

the Richard Pittsburgh Health Care Foundation and by the members of WQED. Here's what's on tonight.