Imagine this scenario: you're Senior Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson and you're settling in to watch some Golden Girls reruns. Maybe, like Lee, you've cracked open a bag of habanero pork rinds and a can of Keystone Light. Yes, you think to yourself, this will be the best Friday night ever!

And then the commercials come on. Maybe it's one of those annoying Five Hour Energy spots or Geico's cloying ad campaign du jour, but in any case it's loud—much louder than the lovable antics of Blanche and the rest of the wacky widows in Miami.

As of today, that hypothetical scenario will be a thing of the past. CNN reports that the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which originally passed at the end of 2010, finally goes into effect today. The law grants the FCC the authority to regulate the volume of commercials, which according to CALM must now be "the same average volume" as the programs that they interrupt.

Not all TV stations will be subjected to the new rules. Small TV stations and cable providers without the means to enforce the new regulations can request a one-year waiver to buy themselves additional time, and that waiver can be renewed for one additional year at the discretion of the FCC.

As laid out on the FCC's website, the Commission will rely primarily on consumer complaints to gauge compliance with the new guidelines. The next time a loud Skittles ad interrupts your Two and a Half Men viewing experience, go to the FCC's complaints page and choose "Broadcast (TV and Radio), Cable, and Satellite Issues," which now has a subcategory allowing for complaints about loud commercials.