TV Ears Founder and CEO, George Dennis

George Dennis, CEO and Founder of TV Ears, was recently interviewed by Jack Warren – host of “San Diego’s Finest.” To listen to the interview, click here, or you can read the transcript provided below. In this interview, Dennis talks with Warren about his involvement in the Pat Boone & Friends 8th Annual Golf Classic tournament, which benefits individuals effected by traumatic brain injury, and the San Diego Storefront, which is a shelter for homeless youth. Future plans for TV Ears are shared as well. Enjoy!

(Voiceover): San Diego Union Tribune and Sign On WSRadio Presents San Diego’s Finest Radio with your host, Jack Warren.

Jack Warren: Hi everyone, this is Jack, the voice of San Diego’s finest businesses. Today we’re talking with one of the most – one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. I met him up at the Pat Boone Golf Classic. He was volunteering his time up there. His name is George Dennis. He is the CEO of a company called TV Ears. If you haven’t seen what TV Ears can do or heard what TV Ears can do you need to go to TVEars.com. Welcome to the show George, and tell us a little bit about TV Ears to start with.

George Dennis: Thank you Jack and thanks for those kind words. It’s great to be here with you. TV Ears puts you in control of your TV volume so you can listen to the television as loud as you want without disturbing anybody else in the house because you can turn the television’s volume down or mute it altogether. So it’s a one and a half ounce wireless headset that you wear. It sits in front of your TV and has its own volume and its own control and you can dial up the television’s volume just the way you want it, as loud as you want, as clear as you want it, and the TV itself is not affected. So the TV volume of your television- you can mute it or just turn it down.

Jack Warren: And as I recall when you were up there at the Pat Boone Classic Golf Tournament and you were doing an interview with Barbara who does the Grand Magazine Show here and she had asked you this very same question, but I want my audience to hear the same question as well, and that is, “Does this really save marriages?”

George Dennis: Well you know when I started this 10 years ago it was just a fun product that helped people, so it’s a great product to produce. We produce a lot of them here in America by the way. But yeah, I get a lot of cards, I get a lot of emails – “You know, I was gonna strangle my husband but your product not only saved his life but it’s made our household so much more peaceful” and so on and at first I kind of thought people were just putting me on but over the years I realized it’s a very serious problem in a lot of homes. I guarantee a lot of your listeners right now are nodding their heads going, “You know, that’s exactly it.“

Jack Warren: You compared it to, or someone compared it to having adjustable controls on your bed. You can adjust your bed the way you want it, you can adjust your sound the way you want it.

George Dennis: I think that’s a really – I get asked the same questions about that and it’s an important thing.  A typical use of this is – let’s say two people are sitting on the couch watching the TV, no one wants to listen to the TV volume at the same level anymore.  Our hearing is different, especially as you get up a little in age. But even for the younger folks, people listen differently. So the guy who wants to turn it down a little, the woman who wants to turn it up louder puts on the headset, the other person can just sit there and turn the volume of the TV where they want it. So, it gives that, yeah, that’s a good analogy there Jack. My side of the bed’s firmer than yours kind of a thing.

Jack Warren: You know, the thing is is that -  well, one thing that I really appreciate is the fact that you’re a San Diego business right? You’re home office is right here.

George Dennis: Yeah we are. And you know a lot of people try to coax me to Texas and Nevada and all these other states but you know I love San Diego. It’s a great city and when you call our phone room to order, those customer service reps are sitting right here in San Diego. They’re not in India, they’re not in different parts of the world.

Jack Warren: Nice.

George Dennis: We’re really proud of that. I probably could make more money if I did but I don’t care about that. We have a great product, we’re a community based business, we sell these things all over the country and now all over Europe, Jack, so it’s a sizable company

Jack Warren: Well you know we have a lot of people who listen to the archives of these shows and the podcasts so I’m gonna give the phone number so if they want to order a set of TV Ears they can go to 888-883-3277 that’s the order desk there and you can see them at the website TV Ears, like television, TVEars.com. Now I don’t want to spend the entire segment on just your company because I also know you’re a compassionate guy and I was so impressed with all you did for the head trauma victims and their organization Ryan’s Reach and High Hopes up there at Cota de Caza on the weekend and now here you are, you told me prior to going on the air, you have like your whole staff down at another charity event. Tell me about where you are and what you’re doing.

George Dennis: Well, we’re at the Photocharity Walk-a-thon, their annual walk-a-thon. It’s gonna start down at Point Loma at the Rock Church – starts at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning and ends at noon, and we’re raising money for a foundation called the Storefront, and the Storefront takes care of, and get this, Jack – 12-17 year old homeless youth in San Diego. Because we’re blessed with such great weather we have thousands of them, 12-17 year olds, on the street. They’re not bad kids, they ran away from a bad situation. They’re scared to death, trying to survive, and the Storefront is the first organization that I’ve seen that can bring them in, give them a bed, give them a meal, teach them, help them… they do all the hard work. And Photocharity is run by Jeffrey Sitgow who made his money taking photos of famous people and eventually had the idea of having these photographs signed and made some money and started donating it to the Storefront. He’s the biggest donor to the Storefront. We got involved.. as a matter of fact, just this Tuesday I bought a hand-autographed, or I should say TV Ears bought a hand-autographed Gibson guitar -  hand-autographed by B.B. King, OK?

Jack Warren: Wow.

George Dennis: And that raised enough money for the Storefront music program for a year. I encourage anybody to go to the Storefront. They don’t advertise the location because of the youth there but it’s one of those charities that really does the hard work. So this Saturday, and Jack, you said you wanted to come down there and walk with us, I don’t think it’s gonna rain!  You’re welcome to come on down, and anybody who’s listening – come on down and join us. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Jack Warren: You know, I may take a trip down there. It seems like I met Jeffrey. I think he was on my Shutterbug Photography Show at one point with some of those fabulous photographs we talked about, and some of the guitars and different things. He does have a great organization and that was a number of years ago. I’m going to have to invite him back. Let me ask you now – how is this event raising money?  I mean you said you’re going to have a bunch of people from TV Ears down here. How does it work?

George Dennis: Well, each walker pays 18 dollars and that 18 dollars – 100% of it goes to the Storefront, and then there will be memorabilia there that people can purchase – you know signed photographs, signed instruments… but more it’s a celebration of the youth that have worked through this program. It’s been going on for 10 years now. I met a couple of the youth that are now functioning young adults – 20, 21, 22… and there stories are enlightening. We don’t realize, I think, when you see a homeless youth – first of all you probably won’t notice them – you don’t know what they’re going through, and it was really an eye opener for me and the entire staff at TV Ears who now supports the Storefront as much as I do in each and every way.

Jack Warren: Well this is a San Diego event we can be proud of and you’re certainly a San Diego company we can be proud of, because I know, George, that you are involved in a lot of charitable activities for our city and I think it just elevates the type of person you are individually and the kind of company you manage and operate. So I want to support you. If at all possible, I will make it down there and I will encourage everybody else to go down here. Once again – day and time and place?

George Dennis: Well it’s tomorrow morning. You get there at 9, the walk starts at 10. It’s only a 5K walk so it’s a very short walk, and then we have music and we have 4 or 5 of these young adults now speaking and the whole thing’s over by noon. It will be supporting a good cause, and you’ll learn about something you might find very intriguing and a little bit gut wrenching, but it’s real. And it’s a good event. And if not, look up Photocharity. And Jeffrey Sitgow, you should have back – talk about a guy with passion and love in his heart. Oh my goodness. He is an amazing guy and he’s someone who has a lot to say about this problem in San Diego.

Jack Warren: Yeah, as I recall in that interview, and we’re starting to run out of time – we have about 60 seconds, he was… some of them he actually puts them up, and they have beds and everything right?

George Dennis: Yeah, we were there. It’s real. It’s not just throwing money around. They have 20 beds, they have rules, regulations, they feed them, they teach them. A lot of these young adults have been on the streets – they don’t know how to do the basic things. They put some real hard work into it. I just was really impressed. One child at a time. And that’s what it takes when you’re trying to get someone off the streets. So it’s really good work.

Jack Warren: I wanted to before we go quickly, and this might be, you might not be able to answer this question, but…

George Dennis: Oh no, don’t be stumping me in front of everybody! <laughs>

Jack Warren: No, I’m trying to get into your psyche – what are the future plans of TV Ears? Are you looking at other possibilities? Other new inventions or things? I mean TV Ears is so great.

George Dennis: Well thanks. Yeah, we have the headset. We came out with the Wireless Speaker. We launched our own TV, which if anybody’s wearing hearing aids, take a look at that.  The hearing aids interface with the TV. And keep an eye open for our “sports bar solution” –  you’re like, what are you talking about, George? You go into a sports bar, you can’t hear the TV… we’re working on that solution, and it’s really fun.

Jack Warren: Ok George,  well always a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for being on. That’s George Dennis, from TV Ears, a San Diego-based company, one of San Diego’s finest, right here on Sign On WS Radio on WSRadio.com, the worldwide leader in internet talk.

For more information on Jack Warren and “San Diego’s Finest,” click here.