Bill Lishman well recalls the day he was fitted with hearing aids. Sitting outside that evening he commented to his family, "The crickets are certainly loud tonight."
"No different than any other night," came the reply. He took out the hearing aids and the crickets disappeared.
Lishman is a renowned artist and conservationist born in Pickering, Ont. whose achievement leading migrating birds in formation using ultra-light aircraft was the inspiration for the movie Fly Away Home. He admits that those flying machines — "their exhaust inches from my ears" — were among the factors that led to a need for hearing aids.
"I mistreated my ears over the years," he says, citing the machinery he uses in his metal sculpting and his passion for motorcycles as other noise culprits. "So as I near 70, a bunch of sound frequencies are greatly reduced in my hearing.
"I missed those little tinkle sounds," he says but enthuses that with the hearing aids, those sounds and bird songs, as well as crickets, are back in his life.
Walter Gretzky, well known as the father of Wayne, hockey’s Great One, understands what Lishman says all too well. An injury at his Bell Canada workplace, in 1964, robbed him of hearing in his right ear.
He remembers a road trip from his Brantford, Ont. home to Hamilton with a gentleman who later told his wife, "Something’s wrong with Walter." All the way to Hamilton and back he had attempted to make conversation but Gretzky had not made any reply.
"I didn’t even know he was talking," Gretzky says. But, today, he has been fitted with an aid in his left ear and says it has made all the difference.
In today’s growing and competitive hearing-assistance marketplace, employing a celebrity endorser like Lishman or Gretzky means extra attention for their sponsors, Hear for Life Hearing Centres and Hear At Last, respectively. As they share their stories, it serves to amplify awareness of hearing problems and solutions in the general public and help reduce the stigma attached to wearing hearing aids – thus growing the demand for products.
Both men wear a tiny behind-the-ear aid with a fine plastic tube that slides unobtrusively into the ear. "They are virtually invisible," says Gretzky. "You forget that it’s even there."
"They’re really well hidden," Lishman agrees. "And they are computer-programmed to the frequencies you’re missing. That’s the beauty. It’s tailored to your hearing loss."
Today’s new breed of hearing centres is a far cry from the clinics of decades ago. Hearing is even going big-box retail at sites like Costco and Walmart. The Gretzky-endorsed Hear at Last clinics are found at Walmart and have sprung from the first outlet last year to 17 in Ontario, with imminent plans so move into British Columbia and Alberta.
Hear for Life opened its first office in Toronto in 1992, as East York Hearing Centre, and moved into Sears stores in 2000, eventually operating in 11 Sears locations across southern Ontario.
Big retail names growing from the west include Island Hearing, founded in Victoria and Duncan, B.C. and now with over 75 locations across the country including 50 in B.C., according to its website, and Expert Hearing Solutions, launched by B.C. audiologist Rob Reiter in 1993. Today Expert Hearing has 17 clinics in B.C., Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario.
Regarding his eastern growth plans, Reiter told Forever Young, "I have two clinics in Thunder Bay, Ont., with an eye on expansion in the province.  I believe that I am the largest independent owner of hearing clinics in the country."
Another heavy hitter is Listen Up!, launched in 2004 and now with 37 outlets across Ontario.
Founding member and vice-president MJ DeSousa is an audiologist and says that the medical presence is one of her company’s strengths. "It’s important to us to ensure that we provide the best quality of care, something we do value as a company," she says.
The growth in the number of storefront locations has done much to promote awareness, she maintains.
"I’ve been working in hearing health care for a long time as a clinical audiologist and I found that people really struggled to navigate the system. They didn’t know where to go. There wasn’t a lot of awareness and even when they were aware, accessibility was a challenge. They didn’t know where to find audiologists or how to go about getting the care they needed."
As in any retail setting, price, training and service are adjustables. For the Walmart clinics, Hear At Last president Robert Oswald says the idea was to open clinics that would enable clients to be tested at no charge, in a user-friendly environment, and then to sell hearing aids at affordable prices.
"Our model was to take the Walmart philosophy – to keep people’s money in their jeans or pocketbooks – so we decided to cut our dispensing fees dramatically, similar to what Walmart has done with its prescriptive drug business, and sell hearing aids at 25 to 50 per cent less than the competition," Oswald says.
The Hear at Last boss says in the coming months he will be touring B.C. as well as Ontario and Alberta with Walter Gretzky as his "ambassador for hearing loss."
While applauding efforts to boost public awareness at a time when hearing loss is becoming a scourge across the country, experts from a couple of traditional sources advise consumers not to neglect the conventional Canadian practice in dealing with any health issue – start with a visit to the doctor.
"We recommend a three-step process," says Janice McNamara, executive director of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association.
Step number one is to discuss the problem with a family doctor who, if there appears to be a problem, will refer the patient to an audiologist for testing and assessment. The audiologist will determine if a hearing aid is needed and either dispense it or send the client to a hearing-aid dispensing centre.
Chantal Kealey, manager of audiology and supportive personnel with the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists, agrees.
"What is important is that the public is not only more aware of hearing and how to protect it, and signs of hearing loss, but they also need to be aware of the differences between audiologists and hearing-aid dispensers," Kealey says.
There currently is no regulation in Canada for hearing-aid specialists, who may have the equivalent of a community-college education. Audiologists have at least six years of university education and a minimum of a masters degree, Kealey points out.
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pics;
EH: Expert Hearing Solutions was launched by B.C. audiologist Rob Reiter in 1993 and today has 17 clinics in B.C., Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario. This one is in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.
(Expert Hearing Solutions photo)
Lish: Bill Lishman, the inspiration for the movie Fly Away Home, admits to years of abuse to his ears from aircraft motors and motorcycles.
(Hear at Last photo)
HaL: Hear at Last clinics are found at Walmart and have sprung from the first outlet last year to 17 in Ontario with imminent plans so move into British Columbia and Alberta.
(Hear at Last photo)
MJ: Audiologist MJ DeSousa co-founded Listen Up!, in 2004.
Listen: Listen Up! now with 37 outlets across Ontario.
(Listen Up! Photos)

Rhonda:  Rhonda Martin is a hearing-instrument specialist and founder of East York Hearing, later Sears Hearing and now part of the Hear for Life chain across southern Ontario.
(Hear for Life photo)