I can hear a radio station signal through my cable tv connection. Possible causes? How can I correct this?

Question

I can hear a radio station signal through my cable tv connection. Possible causes? How can I correct this?

Answer 1

If you are tuned to channel 6 (in the US) this could be because channel 6 is very close to the FM band.  Channel 6 (analog) audio is on 87.7 MHz and the US FM radio band is 88 MHz to 108 MHz.  If a transmitter is nearby and your cable signal has leakage or if the coax from the wall to your TV has poor shielding (includes poor shielding inside a VCR or older DVD player which this signal might pass through on its way to the TV) then the FM signal of the local station is getting in the TV.

FM radio has infinite harmonics which means when you are really close to the transmitter you could pick up the signal easily.  Some amount of this is acceptable but if the signal is not acceptable the radio station or the cable company needs to fix it (whoever is responsible for the problem -- too much harmonics means radio station, too much leakage into cable means cable company or bad coax on your TV or inside VCR/DVD means you need to fix it).

Using a VCR or DVD player in series with the TV?  Disconnect them and connect the TV directly to the cable company outlet.

The above assumes you are not using a cable box with the TV.  The possibly below applies to all TVs with or without a cable box.

The problem could be that you are hearing a SAP or Secondary Audio Program for that one channel.  This means you need to get into the menu of your TV and turn off the SAP.