DO YOU EVER FORGET WHAT YOU WERE WATCHING?

While I despise the number of commercials on television these days, I also take a sadistic pleasure in knowing that most advertisers are being screwed. Their commercials are not being watched. Not by anyone with a remote control. I think viewers today have a good idea of how long a commercial break will be (about six minutes) and they click over to a noncommercial station like Turner Classic Movies or PBS for a break from the Dragon's Challenge, Liberty Insurance, or the dozens of pharmaceutical ads. Commercials are totally out of control and the advertisers don't know what to do about it. If they charge more to run fewer commercials; they will lose business. What they have done apparently is cut the commercials so close together, they can slip in a few more. It just makes it harder for the viewer to know where one ends and another begins. They also, too often, run the same spot two or three times in a break, signaling their desperation. Some stations, at times, wisely inform the viewer when the program will resume, but this only works when it's within a minute. It's a problem that will only get worse. I think some entrepreneur should develop a 24-hour paid cable station that runs thousands of entertaining, educational 30-second spots to which the viewer can turn during a commercial break and learn about history, art, science, sports and everything else that isn't trying to sell him or her something. It will fill in the time while your favorite show is having one of your unfavorite, ever-increasing commercial breaks.