Forget the dreaded cicadas. A temporary annoyance. Mere bugs on the windshield of this great metropolis.
The real noise event this summer is pulsating from the stereos of beat-crazy automobiles, the four-wheeled equivalent of boom boxes, creating a booming phenomenon that is shaking windshields, rattling bones and assaulting eardrums.
It is not unusual for the mega-stereos in these boom cars to be worth more than the auto itself. Jose Soto`s 1980 Toyota Corolla cost him $1,000. His eight-speaker stereo system, with 600 watts of power, cost him four times that amount.
”All my friends, their cars are like hot rods,” said Soto, a suburban waiter who lives near Wrigley Field. ”They got beautiful paint jobs, but if they don`t have a nice system, it gets points down. People will go, `Well, nice tires, nice rims, nice paint job.` Then they`ll look inside, `Oh, wait a second now, you don`t have a system.` ”
Three years ago, Dan Pettigrew set an audio goal: ”To have the most awesome thing I could possibly have.” Now, he`s known as ”the guy with that stereo.”
His 1987 IROC Camaro Z-28 doesn`t have air conditioning, but it is equipped with 18 speakers, 1,000 watts, a compact-disc player and the capability of blasting more than 130 decibels of sound. The music, usually bass-heavy dance mixes, announces his presence from a block or more away.
”It actually can move your heart to its own beat,” said Pettigrew, 20, who commutes from Arlington Heights to his sales job at Mobile Music in West Rogers Park. ”It`s so intense.”
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Boom cars also are causing conniptions in local politicians.
Earlier this month, State Rep. Clem Balanoff, a Democrat from the Southeast Side, won approval for his ”Shake, Rattle and Roar” bill, which makes it a petty offense to operate an auto sound system that can be heard from 75 feet. Violators would be fined $50 beginning in 1991.
”You`ll have some clown driving down the street with a boom car and he`ll wake up everybody,” Balanoff said. Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd) also is championing a strengthened noise ordinance for the city.
But words of caution come from Howard Schechter, a noise consultant and former official for the federal EPA`s regional noise center in Chicago. He advised both sides to take a closer look at the numbers.
”You realize a cow mooing at night will be heard from 75 feet,” he said. So will a car`s engine in a quiet neighborhood.
Moreover, he said, boom-car drivers need to realize that the high decibel levels they strive for, which he measures in dBAs, can permanently damage their hearing over the course of a half-hour or more.
”Anything over 120 dBAs, all the authorities agree, will cause hearing damage,” he said. ”At 135, that`s roughly equivalent to 10 feet from the takeoff of a 747.”
Cicadas, he figures, are 85 dBAs. ”It`s terrible, but of course it`s only once every 17 years,” he said.
The International Auto Sound Challenge Association in Riverside, Calif., which sponsors audio contests throughout the country, is trying to stress
”safe sound,” said spokesman Pat Rooney. ”Don`t let the boom be your doom, as they say.”
Still, Rooney bristles at the various laws that are being enacted across the country to regulate car stereos. Boom cars are the victim of bad press, he said.
”There are some very good things happening out of this,” he said.
”These kids could be gang fighting, hanging out and drinking, or just doing nothing.”
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Some young blasters, like Pettigrew, are clean-cut and hard-working. Some, like Soto, try to be considerate of their neighbors. Some are yuppies looking for audio status.
But, said one stereo salesman, it is not unheard of for very young
”entrepreneurs” in cash businesses to lay down thousands of dollars for gonzo stereo systems. The money doesn`t appear to come from a weekly allowance.
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A good system, Pettigrew said, ”moves air.”
”When you turn it up, it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up,” said Mike Szumal, a salesman for Mobile Stereo on North Broadway.
”My head tingles,” said Soto. ”Sometimes it gets to the point where you`re getting a headache. It`s like, uh, turn it down a little bit.”
”Bolts start to rattle,” said Vito Chiarito, Pettigrew`s boss at Mobile Music. ”The spare tire in the back of my Trans Am is loose now.”
Boom car owners believe the law will not deter the decibel craze and will be hard to enforce-sort of like the nuisance ordinance aimed at forcing owners to clean up after their pets.
They concede, though, that ear damage is a legitimate concern. ”I do turn it down after about 15, 20 minutes,” Pettigrew said. ”If I go deaf, I mean, I wouldn`t be able to work here. It has crossed my mind.”
But just think: Next time around, he might not even notice those darn cicadas.