“Find me one sbs-transit regular who acually likes TVMobile and I will pay for your dinner”

• A close friend.

While I have not gotten my free dinner yet, I agree that TVMobile is freaking annoying. While I am not the easiest to satisfy, with respect to entertainment, among all the people, I can’t see how anyone can enjoy watching lame TV shows, on minisucle screen, 10 feet away, with audio which breaks left and right, all of that while looking at such an angle that is sure to give you neck-aches.

But, all that I am willing to give up for a bit of peace on the bus. All I want after a long day at work, is to sit back and listen to a few tracks of the music I like, but I am forced to listen to boring TV Shows, or god forbid, overplayed episodes of “Just for Gags”.

For all those who recommend increasing the volume of my music, I do care about my ears.

Anyway, ranting aside. I decided to come up with a win-win solution for TV Mobile, and I really hope someone from SBSTransit or relevant authority takes a look at this. Here goes. (Please bear with me with all the assumptions I make to be fair to all parties involved.)

Problem : TV Mobile is too loud. In the already noise polluted landscape of Singapore, TV Mobile just helps to increase the noise levels in the buses. So much so that I can’t speak to the person on the next seat sometimes.

However, the investment SBSTransit in TV Mobile should also be protected. And so removing or just muting TV Mobile is not an option.

Solution : Mute TV Mobile on all buses. But keep the audio on radio, as it is already being done. And start giving out (for free) portable FM radios to SBSTransit customers. I remember getting really simple portable FM radios with only a few preset stations, a coin cell, for like a dollar. These can be given out with a pair of el cheapo earphone. Total cost, with mass production can drop really low. We are talking a wee bit more than a dollar here.

This way, people who want to listen to TV Mobile will be able to listen to it, and the others can do whatever they want, and not get annoyed. Furthermore, there won’t be complains that TV Mobile is exclusive to only people who can afford radios.

Finally, if the portable FM radios are made such that the can only tune into one station (TV Mobile), they can also get sponsorship from the advertisers since for sure people will listen to TV Mobile.

Any more suggestions to make this case?