ALL NEWS AND TALK ...ALWAYS
Published In The Washington Post
January 31, 1987
By Cornelius F. Foote Jr.;
Washington Post Staff Writer
(Copyright 1987 The Washington Post)
WTOP's latest promotion asks the
news-and-talk station's listeners to tune in first thing in the
morning, then check back two, three, four times a day.
By no choice of their own, several
residents living in a Wheaton condominium complex have gone the
50,000-watt station one better, listening to WTOP all day and all night.
Their homes, located in the shadows
of the station's three, 350-foot-tall transmitting towers on University
Boulevard near Georgia Avenue, are literally wired for sound.
For at least the past three years,
many residents of the Sierra Landing condominium project have listened
to WTOP through their telephones, their walls and their stereos without
ever turning on their radios. In some cases, the interference has
caused personal computers to write gibberish on the screen.
"It's at a point now where it's not
just a little thing," said resident Brian Miller. "It's major. If it
was good music, I wouldn't mind."
The station, the condo owners and the
Federal Communications Commission said there are several reasons for
the problem, including the 130-unit complex's closeness to the WTOP
towers, and the fact that the developers who converted the garden
apartment complex into condominiums three years ago installed metal
studs in the building and used plastic-covered wiring that is not
grounded. At various times, residents in other projects near the WTOP
towers have also complained about the interference, but not to the
degree at Sierra Landing.
Balbec Corp., the project's
developer, said it knew about the possibility of radio interference
when it installed the metal studs and plastic-covered wiring, but
believes there is nothing it can do about the problem now. WTOP
engineers said they have tried to resolve the residents' problems on a
case-by-case basis. C&P Telephone said it is not aware of any
unusual circumstances at the condominium, but can only offer
suggestions to individual customers to minimize the problem.
The FCC said WTOP is not doing
anything wrong in operating its towers and that the Sierra Landing
residents are experiencing the same effects that most people do when
they live close to a radio or television station transmitter.
"We went into those units like we
were the Ghostbusters trying to find the problem," said David Garner,
WTOP's chief engineer. "But it's a proximity thing. When we built our
transmitter here in 1939, Wheaton was never-never land. Today, it's a
bedroom community. . . . We're trying to help each and every person,
but there's not any one particular procedure to fix one thing. It's
really trial and error."
Despite the station's interference,
residents said they do not want to move out of their one-, two - or
three-bedroom condominiums that cost between $80,000 and $90,000.
Several said they could not afford to move again and liked the 19-foot
living room ceilings, spacious kitchens and loft areas equipped with
skylights.
But many of the residents admit the novelty of listening to WTOP in unusual places has worn off.
Karl Koerper, who lives in a
two-story duplex on Bucknell Drive, discovered the interference problem
when he moved into his condominium three years ago.
While sleeping one night, Koerper
said he heard a loud radio and thought some people were in the
condominium next door. The sound annoyed him to the extent that he got
up in the middle of the night with a flashlight to check the apartment
next door.
"There was no one there and there was no radio," he said. "That sound was coming from the wall."
Koerper checked with WTOP and the
FCC. They confirmed that it was possible for the sound to come through
the walls. The drywall in Koerper's condo is attached to metal studs,
which act as antennae receiving WTOP's 1500 AM frequency, Garner said.
But the contractor who installed the walls did not put enough screws in
the walls to make them flush against the metal studs, he said. In
effect, the wall is curved and acts as a speaker.
"We realized if you pushed the wall in one place, the sound would go away," Garner said.
To this day, Koerper said WTOP can be
heard from a wall near his bedroom. There are even fingerprints on the
wall where he pushes it in to stop the sound. "{Pushing the wall in}
might stop it for eight or nine hours," he said. "Then it just starts
right up again."
Koerper also gets the radio
interference when he turns on his stereo. Whenever he is about to put a
record on, he has to position the stereo's receiver in a certain way to
avoid getting a WTOP broadcast. But the interference is very sensitive.
If he stands at a particular point in the room, he could play a record
without any interference from WTOP.
Miller, who has lived in the
condominium since 1984, said some of his problems have been reduced
since C&P Telephone technicians told him to install filters on his
phone lines. That solved the problem on his kitchen phone, but not on
his bedroom phone. During a recent telephone interview, a reporter and
Miller listened to the latest headlines on WTOP.
"The funny thing was I could get WTOP
on everything but the radio," he said. "At one point, I could hear it
through the smoke detector."
When Miller had a personal computer,
he frequently could not operate it. He would sign on and before he
could put his hands on the keyboard, the machine would automatically
type nonsense, such as "asdf %%$$3lk,? 1/2 1/4 ." Occasionally, he
said, the machine would begin deleting words at will.
For Laurie Jackson, the problem has
become so commonplace that if she wants to get a quick weather report,
she can press down on the kitchen phone in a certain way and -- voila
-- WTOP at her service.
"When I first moved in, it was kind
of frightening because I was the only one in the building," she said.
"Now I've just gotten used to it."
WTOP, FCC and C&P Telephone officials said there is no single solution to the residents' problems.
Alan Golombek, a public service
specialist for the FCC's field operations bureau in Baltimore, said
WTOP recently passed an FCC inspection held to make sure it was not
violating any FCC transmitting rules. He suggested that Sierra Landing
residents obtain a copy of the FCC's interference handbook, which
describes potential problems and suggestions on how to solve them.
"The number of people with
interference problems is staggering," he said. "And most people don't
know what to do. But the closer you are to a radio station with strong
signals, the more likely there will be a problem."
Said Miller, "I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm always going to dream about WTOP.
= = = = = = = = =
Edition: FINAL
Section: REAL ESTATE
Page: e1
Company Name: SIERRA LANDING
Index Terms: NEWS MARYLAND; Radio; Apartments and condominiums; Montgomery County, md; Noise pollution
Copyright 1987 The Washington Post
Record Number: 31827