I know someone who lives right next to a radio station and cant pick up anything else.?

Question

I know someone who lives right next to a radio station and they are having troubles picking up other radio stations on their fm radio. They literally cannot pick anything else up except that one station! Any ideas on what they could do to pick up other frequencies? (Serious responses only please.)

Answer 1

I live about a block away from a local station and it often comes in OVER the station that I'm listening to

Answer 2

Fm radio is called capture effect.. what ever is strongest comes in. However most radios sold these days are very cheaply produced and built and will overload in a situation like this. I own radios that produce multiple signals of the same radio station even though I am 10 miles away from the station.

What can you do about it? Possibly something, Possibly nothing

The FCC will first tell you to try a better radio As I've been under 50kw broadcast transmitters and with a good radio in a vehicle, it will overload it for about 3 or 4 stations on either way away from the station but not much after that (I could hear a station 40 miles away that was further away on the dial for instance)

After that contact the radio station about the issue if a known good radio (usually a car stereo) is still overloaded. as they have to keep power at certain levels and it may be over to interfere that bad.

Only afterward to call the FCC, as the FCC will advise you to pretty much do the following I've told you and only do anything if many people complain.

Answer 3

Not much. The transmitter is pumping out thousands of watts of RF (radio frequency) and your friend is right next to it.  This may clear up once the station takes the HD (digital) platform but since there is no government mandate to do so, it may be a few years.

You could try an external or powered antenna.  You can also contact the FCC to investigate the radio station to make sure it's transmitter is radiating the proper power (sometimes poorly tuned transmitters can bleed signal).

Hope this helps.