{"id":244289,"date":"2011-05-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/hearing-aid-center-celebrates-50-years-in-north-park\/"},"modified":"2011-05-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T07:00:00","slug":"hearing-aid-center-celebrates-50-years-in-north-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/hearing-aid-center-celebrates-50-years-in-north-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing aid center celebrates 50 years in North Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hearing<\/a>
Three generations of the Dietsch family (front to back): Madison, Monica and Elizabeth in their store, Dietsch's Hearing Aid Center, which just celebrated its 50th Anniversary. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Celene Adams |<\/strong> Editor SDUN<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients,\u201d says Monica Dietsch, owner\/president of Dietsch\u2019s Hearing Aid Center, \u201cstay loyal to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The many customers crowded into Dietsch\u2019s unassuming storefront on 30th Street in North Park last Monday to help celebrate the store\u2019s 50th anniversary attest to that claim, as does the fact that although at least four other hearing aid centers have opened nearby, Dietsch\u2019s customers keep coming back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because we treat them like family,\u201d Monica says.<\/p>\n

Family is integral to the Center\u2019s longevity. Dietsch\u2019s daughter, Elizabeth,and her brother, Bernard, also work in the business. So do several others in the Dietsch brood, pitching in as needed to the three-generation
\naffair, which originated in 1955 when Grandpa and Grandma Dietsch (Paul and Inez), left the frigid Canadian winters in search of a more hospitable climate. \u201cMy grandmother had rheumatic fever when she was having her last child, \u2026 and the doctor recommended my grandfather move her to a warmer climate,\u201d Elizabeth recalls. \u201cHe packed up his \u201955 Chevy, left everything he knew, and came to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first the couple went to Los Angeles, where Paul repaired radios for a large company that subsequently
\nbegan to manufacture hearing aids. After learning more about the devices, he relocated to San Diego where he briefly headed the company\u2019s storefront in the Horton Plaza at 4th and Broadway before opening his own store in 1961.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, hearing aid [distributors] were franchised,\u201d Monica says. They could only carry one manufacturer\u2019s devices. \u201c[Dad] wanted to be able to handle different manufacturers, because not everyone falls into one category. When [he] moved in here, we were able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that still sets us apart today,\u201d Elizabeth adds. \u201cA lot of people will go to another hearing
\naid center, and they only offer one or two manufacturers. They may be fit with a hearing aid that\u2019s the best choice for them to choose from, but maybe it\u2019s not even close to what they really need.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are about seven major hearing aid manufacturers in the world, and Dietsch\u2019s carries five of them, with approximately 15 different models from each. Monica demonstrates one, unhooking a delicate, metallic, raspberry-colored gadget from behind one of her own ears. No bigger than a lima bean, it could almost pass for an earring; a far cry from the unwieldy, unsightly contraptions her father carried in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [Dad] started, hearing aids were the size of a digital camera,\u201d she remembers. \u201cOne of the first portable devices had a battery pack on a long cord that taped to your leg. The ear molds were black rubber, and you had to have a plaster of Paris cast made of your ear; whereas, today we use silicon molds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contrast between the slight, unobtrusive device Monica wears and its bulky forerunners is striking. But there is one similarity: the modern version is also connected\u2014just not to a wire taped to one\u2019s leg. \u201cI can answer the phone through mine,\u201d Monica gloats.<\/p>\n

Other customers are equally thrilled with the multi-tasking capabilities of modern hearing aids. Elizabeth
\nlaughs recalling one 16-year-old client whose teacher reprimanded him because he\u2019d hooked his hearing
\ndevice up to his Nintendo remote control and was playing a game while in class.<\/p>\n

Hearing aids are becoming high-tech accessories, much like Bluetooth technology, notes Zachary Call, a business development consultant with Siemens, which manufactures the devices. In future, Call says, we will be able to implant them in the inner ear. To date this has proven difficult, since the ear canal is extremely moist; however, Siemens will next month release the first waterproof hearing aid, which can be worn while swimming or bathing. \u201cIt\u2019s one step closer,\u201d Call says.<\/p>\n

Hearing aid devices aren\u2019t the only aspect of the business that have progressed since the Dietsch\u2019s early days. After her father opened a repair service in the store, Monica reminisces, she helped him alter the frequency response in the aids\u2019 transistors and resistors\u2014a skill she\u2019d learned as a child by reading his radio electronics manual. Today, although she continues to fine tune hearing aids, she uses computers. \u201cEach manufacturer has its own software, and we just hook the hearing aids up to the computer and pull up the information \u2026to change the [amount of output, background noise, etc.],\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Dietsch\u2019s itself has also progressed, expanding to two locations (along with its North Park store it has one in El Cajon) and initiating a mobile service to bring products and services to customers in their homes. Along with customer care, the most important aspect of the store\u2019s evolution, however, continues to be family: \u201cI\u2019m very excited about Elizabeth taking over [one day],\u201d Monica says. But she\u2019s also eyeing her granddaughter, Madison. \u201c[Madison\u2019s] only six,\u201d Monica grins, \u201cbut when she\u2019s in the store and the phone rings, she answers.\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Celene Adams | SDUN Editor \u201cOur clients,\u201d says Monica Dietsch, owner\/president of Dietsch\u2019s Hearing Aid Center, \u201cstay loyal to us.\u201d The many customers crowded into Dietsch\u2019s unassuming storefront on 30th Street in North Park last Monday to help celebrate the store\u2019s 50th anniversary attest to that claim, as does the fact that although at […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Hearing aid center celebrates 50 years in North Park","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}