Your Life Can Be Better Sooner than Later feat. Ralph Brodt | Owner of Nazareth Music Center

About The Hearing Matters Podcast

The Hearing Matters Podcast discusses hearing technology (more commonly known as hearing aids), best practices, and a growing national epidemic - Hearing Loss. The show is hosted by father and son - Blaise Delfino, M.S. - HIS and Dr. Gregory Delfino, CCC-A. Blaise Delfino and Dr. Gregory Delfino treat patients with hearing loss, tinnitus, and Central Auditory Processing Disorder at Audiology Services, located in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and East Stroudsburg, PA.

On this episode, we interviewed our patient, Mr. Ralph Brodt. Mr. Brodt is a patient at Audiology Services and is a current hearing aid user.  He is a Nazareth, Pennsylvania native, talented musician and owner of the Nazareth Music Center - of which, has been in business for 60 years! This family-owned generational business is a gem in our small town of Nazareth. You can find Mr. Brodt playing the French horn or trombone in his free time. Check out all the Nazareth Music Center has to offer at:  https://www.nazarethmusic.com/

On this episode, Mr. Brodt takes us on a journey through his love of music, passion for teaching, the family music store history, and how hearing instruments have so positively impacted his life. We see how the use of this hearing technology has increased his communication in his familial life, musical performances, and his customer relations. Ralph’s wife is his number one fan and supporter! 

Most importantly, Mr. Brodt paints us a clear picture as to why he is successful with his hearing technology.

Why is Mr. Brodt So Successful with His New Hearing Aids?

·      Comprehensive Audiological Evaluation

·      Practitioner Knowledge of Fitting Software and Gain Measurements

·      Conducting Real Ear Measurement and Additional Outcome Measurements

·      Customized Listening Settings ~  one program for conversation, one program for playing music, and one program for listening to music

·      iPhone Connectivity and Use of Corresponding Application 

·      Follow Up Care and Annual Audiological Evaluations 

Tune in to hear Ralph’s homegrown story about his hearing journey and a testament of how best practice will undoubtedly leave your patients hearing the best that they can!

 We Heard You Have Some Questions. Let's Hear Em'!

E-mail: Blaise@audiologyservicesllcpa.com

Audiology Services Website: https://audiologyservicespa.com/

Transcript

Blaise Delfino: 0:09

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic, hearing loss. On today's episode, we have a very special guest and professional musician. His name is Mr. Ralph Brodt and he is a Nazareth native. Mr. Brodt, welcome to the show.

Ralph Brodt: 0:38

Thank you.

Blaise Delfino: 0:39

It's so wonderful to have you now, we're just gonna dive right in because you have such a unique and interesting story to share with our listeners. Your family owns the Nazareth Music Store here in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and you have for going on 60 years. Share with us your background, being a musician, growing up in music, and growing up and owning a business and Nazareth.

Ralph Brodt: 1:07

Well, I was born and raised here at Nazareth. And same as my father and my mother. My father bought the Nazareth Music Center in 1960 from Wilson Zelner, another man born and raised here at Nazareth, and most people around here are a little more familiar with his daughter Sandra, of Sandra's Bridles. And also her brother Bob was my father's best man at his wedding and he was his best man at his wedding, they traded back and forth. And so my father knew of the business and he actually worked for Wilson as a teacher at the store. And in 1959, Wilson got a job as a road salesman with Martin Guitar, and sold the business to my father. One of the reasons he sold it to my father and not his daughter or son, was because he didn't want to play favorites with his own children, but instead decided to solve the problem by selling it to my father, to their best friend. So anyway, and it worked out nicely because

Blaise Delfino: 2:28

Sure. Sandra's Bridles we all know was a very successful business and Bob became a wonderful, incredible band director at East Stroudsburg High School and then Gettysburg College and was known nationally as a guest conductor for district and regional and state bands all over the country. Wilson also had a great career with Martin Guitar, he was their first road salesman, and within six months of being on the road, put the company three years behind in production. Wow.

Ralph Brodt: 3:11

Again, he was the is the living example of the man who can sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo. He was great at it. But anyway, my father took over the business and we actually grew up there. We lived above the business, it's the home is large. And we grew up on top, the store was on the bottom. And we expanded the business out to the barn and included that in 19 oh my god 81. I believe my brother started working at the store well as a repairman and he eventually became the CEO. In 1992 I was a teacher at Allentown Central Catholic High School, a band director and having a fine career there. I love teaching. I have a teaching degree from Moravian College. I've always been a teacher, I've always loved teaching. I started teaching when I was 15 years old. My father would take my brother and I to Catholic school band rehearsals that he taught over at Central Catholic too and I started my teaching career then when I was 15 years old.

Blaise Delfino: 4:36

Wow.

Ralph Brodt: 4:38

So I've always loved teaching and I was at Central Catholic in 1992. I started there in 1980 and my brother called me up and said Ralph, the store is getting bigger and I can't handle it all by myself anymore. I am going to have to hire someone new, in addition to myself. I would prefer to have another family member, I'd prefer to have you, but if you're not interested, if you want to stay in teaching, I understand I'll simply hire someone else. I went home, talked it over with my wife, did I want to do a career change at that point in my life, and I wasn't relishing the fact that I wanted to leave teaching, but we agreed that it would be different opportunities for me, and that I could do one of the things that I wanted to do more. Being a high school band director is a very, very is not a an eight to three job. But not if you want to be good at it.

Blaise Delfino: 5:50

Sure.

Ralph Brodt: 5:51

I never went home before five o'clock. And with football games and concerts and shows and responsibilities at school, I found that I didn't have enough time to play jobs that I wanted to play. I'm a musician. I like being a musician and

Blaise Delfino: 6:09

You want to perform! Is he hiring? I have a good boss too.

Ralph Brodt: 6:10

I wanted to perform more, and I thought that working at the store would allow me to do that. And it has and I'm glad I made that decision in 1992 to go to the store and work from my brother. He's a very kind boss. He lets me off, which is why I' here this morning. He he prett much lets me off whenever I wan to, to do the things I want t do, to play, to perform and a d he's a very good bos Oh, okay. Yes, yes. Very. Yeah. And and actually, I've been blessed with good bosses my entire life. I really have. The principal at Central Catholic was a great man and I loved working for him.

Blaise Delfino: 7:01

I actually went to Central Catholic for about two years. Oh, yes, that's right! Yes, freshman and sophomore year

Ralph Brodt: 7:07

Then to DeSales.

Blaise Delfino: 7:08

Well, Autumn, my wife, went to DeSales.

Ralph Brodt: 7:11

Oh, Autumn went to DeSales. Oh okay.

Blaise Delfino: 7:12

But it's all connected.

Ralph Brodt: 7:14

Well, because my daughter was a Resident Advisor there at DeSales when Autumn was there.

Blaise Delfino: 7:20

It's a small world. It's such a small world.

Ralph Brodt: 7:22

It is a very small world.

Blaise Delfino: 7:23

So your family has owned a business in Nazareth for 60 years. Our family's practice has been here in Nazareth for this location, a little over 11 years. So you have a couple years on us. But what's so amazing, Mr. Brodt, is that our paths crossed about 18 months ago. Now, you've been a musician for your entire life. You've been exposed to music and to sound and to noise for your entire life. You also play trumpet, which is a loud instrument, correct?

Ralph Brodt: 8:05

Yes.

Blaise Delfino: 8:06

So you are also a hearing instrument user? Can you tell us, you know, was there a specific incident that prompted you to pursue hearing aids and what was that tipping point?

Ralph Brodt: 8:24

I'd say a lot of it was probably my family, brother, mother, and especially my wife. And once I looked into it, I found that hearing aids were cheaper than a divorce.

Blaise Delfino: 8:44

Yes! Very!

Ralph Brodt: 8:47

And it was just a build up of complaints and and also working in the store dealing with, when you're dealing with customers and the public some people are very soft spoken. And I was having a hard time dealing with them in the store, understanding what they wanted, understanding if I had to take down a phone number or information, personal information from them when they're filling out a contract to rent an instrument and it was becoming annoying, and also talking to people on the phone. It was, it was becoming obvious to me that I had problems and I saw your ad, and I came over here to the office and had a session with your father and I was very, very impressed with what he did in testing my ears and coming up with a ,I guess you would call it a diagnosis, that my real trouble was in hearing consonants. Which didn't surprise me a whole lot because it made so much sense because that's, I had a hard time understanding people. But as a musician, I really didn't have a hard time hearing music or playing in tune with my fellow musicians, at least, I didn't have any huge complaints in that area. But that's a pure sound that has, I don't, you don't need consonants for that. But you need consonants for understanding people speaking and it just made so much sense to me that, and I was so very impressed with your methods and your test and your, your conclusions.

Blaise Delfino: 10:45

Thank you. And, you know, we, we are very passionate about what we do here at audiology services.

Ralph Brodt: 10:52

Oh, obviously

Blaise Delfino: 10:53

And it's it's essential to note too, that when

Ralph Brodt: 10:54

Oh, oh that's the worst part! we talk about, you know, the consonants, what they do is they carry meaning into conversation. And I remember when we were, whe we first met each other an meeting your wife as well because we always tell ou patients, you cannot see th picture when you're in th frame. So well, yes, you kne that, you know, I'm reall presenting with difficulty

Blaise Delfino: 11:16

But your wife, your wife, Mrs. Brodt was like especially in speech and nois in those complex listenin situations."he really struggles in ABCDE, F and G." and that was, it's really empowering to see, you know, the two of you work as a team and she is such a great accountability buddy for you to say, you know what, Ralph, please take the next step towards better hearing. Because when we talk about especially auditory memory, you had made the connection of, you know, I can still hear the music, but it was the speech, that, to me, is the most difficult situation to understand and whether it be one on one or in complex listening situations. Dr. Delfino, Can you touch a little bit upon because we've seen this time and time again, with our musicians, they sort of have that, that auditory memory, Mr. brodt has grown up playing instruments, and he sort of has that auditory memory, can you sort of dovetail off that concept.

Dr. Gregory Delfino: 12:18

We actually refer to it as an Echoic Memory. And it is a that part of the Auditory Cortex, which remembers sounds, words that we've heard, and files them away. And it also is a way in which we judge the way in which we hear things. Music and tones don't carry any linguistic information so that at a tone, we can increase the volume and still hear it, but there's no, there's no again, cognitive imposition of understanding the meaning of that tone. Whereas with speech with consonant sounds, this auditory decoding, auditory memory will play a part in understanding, recognizing what's being said and then responding appropriately.

Blaise Delfino: 13:03

Mr. Brodt, you are a professional musician. What challenges did you experience during performances prime to wearing hearing technology?

Ralph Brodt: 13:16

Actually playing like I said, I didn't have too much problem. I could hear myself, I could hear other musicians, I could distinguish tones, I could play in tune, and being a trombone player also, everybody expects you to play very loud.

Blaise Delfino: 13:34

Sure.

Ralph Brodt: 13:34

So that's, that's one of the fundamentals of the horn. In fact, one concert when I was backing up Bobby Vinton. I was the only trombone player in the backup band. And we were playing an arrangement of Chattanooga Choo Choo, Glenn Miller's arrangement, Chattanoog Choo Choo, which has a real ig trombone part in a bom, bom om. And and I was the only rombone, and normally it's p ayed by four trombones and, an and he just stopped the rehear al and said, "I need more trom one." That was some of the very ew times I was ever asked tha I wasn't loud enough. But an way, the worst part was ou

Blaise Delfino: 14:23

Yes. Tell us more.

Ralph Brodt: 14:24

Listening to instructions from the conductor. Okay, stop at letter A. Let's start again. I want this I want that. And, and, and half the time I would have to turn to the, we'll use a french horn player, the trumpet player, another trombone player sitting next to me, "what'd he say? What'd he say? Where are we starting?" And I I'm sure some of the people sitting next to me, that bothered him a little bit, I I never really Got any complaints. Unless they told other people than me, but it never got back to me. But it did make me, that was the worst part, not actually playing but listening to instructions, especially again from a soft spoken conductor.

Blaise Delfino: 15:17

Sure.

Ralph Brodt: 15:18

And that, that was getting very bad. And and, unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I got these just before the pandemic started

Blaise Delfino: 15:32

Yes!

Ralph Brodt: 15:33

I've not had a chance to test them in that certain situation. Now. You remember, you had to make adjustments for me for playing.

Blaise Delfino: 15:44

Yes. I want to talk about-

Ralph Brodt: 15:46

oh, we're gonna talk about that later.

Blaise Delfino: 15:48

Oh, yeah , but you know what, let's let's go into it now.

Ralph Brodt: 15:50

Oh okay

Blaise Delfino: 15:51

Yeah, absolutely

Ralph Brodt: 15:52

Yeah, the normal setting that you set up for me is was just absolutely perfect for conversations. And and also even in noisy rooms that it's solved that way. But when I played my horn, I heard this, I don't know what it was.

Blaise Delfino: 16:09

Modulation, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah,

Ralph Brodt: 16:10

Yeah! it was back and forth and I said, "oh, my" bah. so the first couple times I just simply removed them and then practiced or played, but then I came back to you, explained the problem and well, I, I don't k ow how you solve the problem, but you you solved the problem With my hearing aids, I ave different settings-

Blaise Delfino: 16:33

Programs

Ralph Brodt: 16:33

Programs! That's correct!

Blaise Delfino: 16:35

So there are many Audiologist and hearing healthcare professionals that do tune into the Hearing Matters Podcast, so we'll preface it with this. You do wear musician earplugs, custom ear plugs that we fit for you. We also recommended when you are playing the trumpet, not to have the instruments on full on volume. Yes, the hearing aids have compression, but we of course counseled you on utilizing that volume control. Because we never want to over amplify and the hearing instruments because of the compression they have, they won't do that. But what Mr. brodt is referring to, and any other horn players out there, we have what's called the "Adaptive Feedback Manager". So the instruments, were picking up your output of the trumpet and saying "no, that's going to cause feedback, that's going to cause feedback." So we actually disengaged that adaptive feedback management system, but when we did that, there was so much gain, because of your type and degree of hearing sensitivity, we sort of had to bring down the overall gain through Real Ear Measurement. But we we solved the problem.

Ralph Brodt: 17:42

Yes, yes. Perfect.

Blaise Delfino: 17:43

After that, you were just like, this is how it should sound.

Ralph Brodt: 17:46

Yup, and and again, I don't even have to adjust the volume on it. I just simply go to my P2 setting on the cell

Blaise Delfino: 17:53

On the cell phone

Ralph Brodt: 17:54

On my cell phone and and plug it in, and and it's great. And then you even gave me a third one for listening to music.

Blaise Delfino: 18:03

Yes

Ralph Brodt: 18:04

And I like that one. So I actually have three settings, I have the first setting I use for conversation in normal use. And then P2 I use for playing and then P3 I use for listening to music. So they are you custom designed them for me and for all the situations that I find myself in. And it's so easy to go back and forth with just my phone.

Blaise Delfino: 18:28

With regard to your connectivity options, having the hearing instruments connected to your iPhone, how have the hearing instruments positively influenced your interpersonal relationships because you have the power to change programs, depending on the situation with which you're in, whether you're in a simple listening situation or a complex listening situation. I'd love to learn more and we'd love to learn more how the hearing instruments have positively affected your interpersonal relationships, family, friends, even customers and communicating with students. Tell us a little bit about that.

Ralph Brodt: 19:13

I guess the biggest one is family and guests. Since we're in a pandemic, I haven't had many gatherings with large groups, but sitting at a table with the family, I can now they used to know that I would sit there and be quiet. And I would not engage in many of the conversations because I was always afraid of saying something wrong, because I didn't hear what they had said or I get said well so and so just said that or and and so my solution was to simply keep my mouth shut.

Blaise Delfino: 19:56

And that's socially. So that's one of the common signs of hearing loss, is socially withdrawing.

Ralph Brodt: 20:03

Yes.

Blaise Delfino: 20:03

And it's interesting because some individuals will socially withdraw, and they won't communicate or really provide much communication effort in that situation, or the individual will dominate the conversation so-

Ralph Brodt: 20:19

Oh, oh the other way

Blaise Delfino: 20:20

Or the other way. So you were, experiencing that social withdrawal.

Ralph Brodt: 20:26

Yes.

Blaise Delfino: 20:27

Tell me about some of the feelings that you carried with that social withdrawal.

Ralph Brodt: 20:31

Well, it doesn't make you feel good. But you know what, as human beings, now we're used to wearing masks, we get used to situations

Blaise Delfino: 20:39

Sure.

Ralph Brodt: 20:40

And maybe they aren't, that's not always the best thing because being withdrawn isn't good. In fact, I'm now listening to an audio book on Beethoven and I'm getting to the chapters where he went through his deafness. And he did the same thing, withdrew, stopped talking to people, his family, even. And, and I, well, I didn't get as bad as that. But you know, that's what it does to you. And then that becomes your norm. That becomes your normal behavior and my family didn't like that, as nearly as I think they were bothered by it more than me. And, and also customers at the store. It's, it's nice to be able to communicate, and, and I still had trouble with phone calls at the store, because hearing aids don't help a standard phone much. But just last week, I decided to call the gentleman who installed our phones, and ask him, because I heard something on a commercial someplace that people could forward calls to your cell phone. And I'm thinking, well, if he could, they can do that. And I called him up and asked him, if the clerks up in the store when they transfer calls down to my desk, my workbench, if they could transfer directly to my iPhone, which would then go directly to my hearing aids. And I wouldn't have to use my phone, my desk phone anymore. And he said, Sure, no problem. He said, Oh, what extension are you at? He took my phone number. And 10 minutes later, he called me up on it using the system just to and he had done it that just like that. So now, now I don't even have to worry about phone calls anymore. They come right through my iPhone, so that I can understand people perfectly because when it comes right into my hearing devices, it's crystal clear. And I never have to say "what" and you know,

Blaise Delfino: 23:40

You're hearing through both ears, right and left. Dr. Delfino, why do most patients prefer to hear phone conversations through their right and left hearing instrument as opposed to holding up the phone to their ear having that auto phone program on? Why do most patients want to hear through their hearing aids right and left when they do have a phone call come in.

Dr. Gregory Delfino: 24:03

I think part of the reason for preferences in the past is what I've heard patients telling me about is that they use the right or the left ear possibly they're better or the worse here, but it also has to do with when they're going to write something down. If they're holding the phone on one side, they need to get their hand to write things down. So that in and of itself created a preference. But you know, because we understand and hear better with both ears, this bineural summation, both ears are getting an auditory stimulus. It is then going up to the Auditory Cortex where that that neural code is deciphered and we're better able to hear and understand what's being said when we're using both ears. And again, Mr. Brodt, as you say, you know, it's coming in both ears now you have total hands free operation, you can write or do something else. While you're listening on the phone.

Ralph Brodt: 24:49

Yes, I don't even have to hold my phone. I just know lay my phone on the desk. And yes, I, it really is so much easier.

Blaise Delfino: 24:57

Isn't Bluetooth amazing. It really is, Mr. Brodt, it's and we didn't touch upon this yet. I met your mother and I started working with your mother before we started working together. And she is one of the nicest human beings I think I've ever met in my life. She is the kindest woman. And it's interesting because she also presents with a decrease in hearing sensitivity. And you also work in a family business. So number one, working in a family business can be quite difficult because you're with your family all of the time and learning how to effectively communicate with family members can be sometimes difficult when you're working with them. But if you throw a hearing loss on top of that, tell us and bring us through what your experience was like working with your mother who presented with the hearing loss, and then decided to take the next step in treating her hearing loss with hearing aids.

Ralph Brodt: 26:00

It was, it was a big improvement. Although, when it comes right down to it, my family my brothers and sisters grew up with two grandmothers on both sides who both also had hearing problems.

Blaise Delfino: 26:19

So there's a genetic factor as well.

Ralph Brodt: 26:20

Yes, our family has had has had hearing for enerations. My uncle is is also as problems and actually my ather was was not but both his other and my mother's brother. o we kind of grew up learning o say everything twice. Yes when it became behavioral and when it came to

Blaise Delfino: 26:43

It became behavioral mom, we just sort of started doing it with mom. But when she did get the the hearing aids it was it really was much more pleasant. We didn't have to talk as loud and she actually had gotten some from someone else. You people here, fix them for her and adjusted them correctly and she has nothing but praise for you. But if you want to know her bad side, just drop one of her vases when you're four years old. But yeah, yes, you she she she swears by you peopl as I do, because you adjusted her hearing aids so much better han the previous people whic we won't n And we don't have to. Now, can you bring us through when, of course being fit with the hearing technology and improving your overall communication? Because you are a business owner. Your family's own Nazareth music for 60 years, as previously mentioned, how much of an improvement was it communicating with your patrons in the store? I mean, it must, it had to have been night and day when you first walked in there that first day of I was just fit with my hearing instruments. It might have been a little overwhelming with all of the the new sounds you're hearing. How much of an improvement have the hearing aids made with communicating with your customers and your patrons?

Ralph Brodt: 28:25

That's been huge. But again, not as big is with my wife, if you remember when my wife was sitting, right here in the office next to you

Blaise Delfino: 28:33

Yes. Tell us more about that. Yeah.

Ralph Brodt: 28:35

You put them in my ears for the first time and then you turned away from me and spoke very softly. I understood every word you said and my wife started crying. If your emember? She immediately. She is an emotional person. But

Blaise Delfino: 28:59

I think I did too.

Ralph Brodt: 29:00

Yeah. But as she could not believe that I actually heard what you said when you were facing away from me and talking softly. So I think my biggest fan is my wife. But in the store to is like us. It's made a big difference. I I like dealing. And I should say, I'm not afraid of dealing with customers anymore and being embarrassed by asking what or what was that number? Or excuse me, and I don't have to do that anymore. And that's been a big, a big boost. I don't I don't know if customers appreciate it as much as I do, because customers are always new. But I'm sure I have many of old friends who are glad. But again, many of them as musicians I haven't been with again because of the pandemic. So that's still one area where I'm waiting to experience sitting in a pit orchestra or an orchestra or any kind of large rehearsal where I don't have to ask my the neighbor sitting next to me where we're starting, what the conductor just said, are we supposed to play this louder or softer? Or did we do something wrong? Or am I in tune? Or I can be I can I can be the musician I was 30 or at least the polite musician. I was 30 or 40 years ag.,

Blaise Delfino: 30:48

And that's to us, we take that very seriously because for us to positively influence you on and throughout your journey to better hearing, and we do call it a journey because we've been able to assist you in reconnecting you to family, friends, patrons, bandmates things of that nature, because we know that there are comorbidities linked to untreated hearing loss, which we talked about at your initial appointment of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, being at an increased risk of falling, things of that nature. And you were ready to take that step towards better hearing. It's interesting because statistics say that individuals will wait 10 years before they do something about their hearing loss about treating their hearing loss and Dr. Delfino you've been an audiologist for over 35 years. How, how true is that statement? Because when we talk to Dr. Doug Beck, we had that same conversation, patients will wait 10 years to do something about their hearing loss.

Dr. Gregory Delfino: 31:51

Unfortunately, it's all too true. Waiting doesn't make it better, it's not going to get better, as Mr. Brodt had said, it is going to get worse. And unfortunately, it's a tipping point where at some, at some there were some incident or some point of their life where their hearing loss has impacted them in such a way that they feel compelled now to go ahead and do something. Our hope is that certainly by having mediums like Hearing Matters Podcasts, letting people know what's available that we can hopefully reduce that amount of time.

Ralph Brodt: 32:27

You're you're absolutely correct in my case, too, is that I would probably say I struggle with this at least 10 years, wow, I decided to get something done. And I also like to say that one of my musician, friends, when I talked to them about it, the the the only advice out of their mouths were "don't go cheap". Get, the best you can, because as a musician, you won't regret it. And I have not. Absolutely, and and that would be my exact same advice to to another musician. Now, I'm not saying that people who are not musician don't need help and shouldn't get good hearing aids. But if you are a musician, I am very, very glad I got the best I could get.

Blaise Delfino: 33:22

Again, it goes back to that echoic memory, Dr. Delfino and your brain, the way that you process sound, you've been around all of these different sounds all the time, your whole life, and you want to hear the nuances in the music. And, you know, we of course fit you with the Oticon OpnS1s. It has a phenomenal ability to discern the difference between speech and non speech sounds, but also for musicians, it really is a phenomenal hearing instrument to overall decrease your listening effort, increase your speech understanding, and just allows you to reconnect to your family and friends. Now, Mr. Brodt, how important is it for musicians to get their hearing tested on an annual basis?

Ralph Brodt: 34:11

It's a lot more important than I think I I gave it growing up. My wife had given me, my wife is a nurse, the school nurse. And years ago, she brought home the little device that they use in the nurse's office- to to test me because again, she had mentioned

Blaise Delfino: 34:31

Audiometer this many years before. And even with her little little scope, she said you've lost all your high partials. Are you sure you can't hear this? And she's p shing the button. And I aid No, I don't hear anything. And and and you need to get you know and and and again, I pr bably did put it off for 10 ye rs and that was too long. I cou d have made my life bett Wow.

Ralph Brodt: 35:10

And I, well again, my hearing problem was a result, as you had said that it was probably a combination of my heritage and also spending a few years working in an iron foundry. And I did serve in the services, and I also play electric guitar in a loud rock and roll band and-

Blaise Delfino: 35:45

You were around a lot of noise

Ralph Brodt: 35:46

Yes, I was I grew up with a lot of noise and and in fact, the the iron foundry that I worked in for a while, about three months, maybe before I left OSHA came in and said, the sound around here is no good. All your people should be wearing hearing aids. Well, I had already been there for two years. But you know, that was a time when OSHA was just starting to do these sorts of things,

Blaise Delfino: 36:12

making it mandatory to wear hearing.

Ralph Brodt: 36:13

Right. Absolutely correct. And that's all good too, companies like that coming in and doing that because no one knew, you know

Blaise Delfino: 36:24

You didn't know, you didn't know the effects of noise and untreated hearing loss.

Ralph Brodt: 36:29

Right.

Blaise Delfino: 36:29

So, Mr. Brodt, what would you tell individuals who are experiencing hearing loss, but they're, they're unsure as if they should do something about it? What would you tell those individuals listening right now?

Ralph Brodt: 36:45

Don't hesitate. If your family, friends, whatever are complaining about your hearing, the hearing test was free by the way.

Blaise Delfino: 37:00

It was, it was a complimentary evaluation.

Ralph Brodt: 37:04

And so getting them tested won't cost you a dime. And and there is a wide range of types and prices in the hearing devices you're bound to fit something that will fit your your budget. Don't put it off because your life really can be better sooner than later.

Blaise Delfino: 37:36

I love that. Absolutely

Dr. Gregory Delfino: 37:37

Well said.

Blaise Delfino: 37:38

You're tuned into the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. Today we had special guest, Mr. Ralph Brodt from the Nazareth Music Store join us today. Until next time, hear life story.