I can hear radio stations through my television - why?

Question

I have an older RCA brand TV and can hear radio stations (always the same station) whenever it is on. My TV is NOT hooked up to a cable box, but it catches basic cable channels on its own just fine: NBC, CBS, FOX, etc. I have a DVD player that I sometimes hook it up too, but when I'm watching regular TV I disconnect the cable from the DVD player because if I leave it hooked up the radio signal is louder for some reason. I've always had this same set-up, but only began having this problem after I moved to a new place. Do I need to buy a new or different type of cable? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

This is typically caused by a strong radio signal getting into your TV. If a strong enough signal gets to the wrong place, you TV becomes a poor radio receiver.

So you need to figure out how it's getting in to your TV.

Listen to the radio signal and find out it's call sign and frequency. Is it an AM, FM, or cable station?

1. One possibility:

Call, e-mail, or visit the station. Preferably talk to the station's engineer and be a sweet and charming as you can.

Describe your problem,  ask how close to their transmitting antenna you are, and what can be done about it.

2. Second possibility:

Radio signals can get into the TV through the various wires connected to it.

Cable wire, audio wires, speaker wires, and last but not least, the power cord.

Defective coax or A/V cables can let radio signals leak in. If you look at the ends of these you will see a outer connector, either a s***w or press on type. This is a "ground" or "shield" which should keep signals from leaking into the cable. If there is a break in the ground either in the cable or elsewhere, the cable becomes an antenna for outside signals

If the signal is really strong the wiring inside the TV can act like an antenna. This would be the hardest thing to solve.

Try removing wires to find the source of the radio signal. The power cord can be isolated with a UPS or a surge protector with RFI/EFI filtering.  There are also things called ferrite chokes and FM traps that can be applied to the outside of some wires to keep unwanted signals out of the TV.

Answer 2

You may moved very close to a radio station or its transmitting tower.