Why is my computer picking up radio stations and sounds?

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On an orthogonal tangent, one night while working as the overnight DJ at an AM radio station (when they used to play music) I received a phone call from a very unhappy woman. She complained that I was somehow sending music into her head. She determined it must be me, because she heard the same music when she turned on her radio.

It turns out that she had some major dental work done a couple days earlier that somehow was resulting in sympathetic vibration that she could actually hear. She only heard the signal at night, when we had switched to a directional pattern that included a major lobe in the direction of her house.

Unfortunately, the signal wasn’t very clear. Initially she wanted to know why that woman was singing about people taking away her house. The song was actually a Crystal Gale tune, “Don’t Take Me Half The Way.” She thought the lyrics were, “Don’t take my house away.”

I’m not sure what ever happened with her situation; she stopped calling me after she realized the timing coincided with her dental work – she was ready to go after her dentist.

I hear bleeps and chirps a lot of times and that's because of my cell phone being picked up through the stereo speakers. Our office has a dozen computers and they all have the same type/style of speakers (cheap, two-speaker setup that comes with most new computers). If I walk up the center isle, past all the workstations, often I'll hear the chirping sounds as I pass from one computer to the next. Funny thing is, where I used to live was a small community in a remote area and we didn't have any cell reception so I always turned me phone off when I was home. One day, I heard those same chirps and bleeps while sitting at my home PC (which also had cheap speakers). I checked my phone and it was off, so then I used my laptop to scan for new networks and sure enough a wireless network was available that wasn't previously available. I believe that person's wireless broadcast was coming across my speakers with similar chirps and beeps like the cell phone does. Strange.

LOL, Dave b's comment is hilarious! Unfortunately, it's not for the woman that called, but nevertheless, a very unique and funny story. Thanks for sharing!

dave b's story is hardly "unique", as people have been making such claims for decades:

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.asp
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=367925

Now, on the opposite side of things, early home computers were very bad at shielding their own RF signals. There were even programs available for the TRS-80 Models I and III which let you "play" sounds on your AM radio with the leaked RF signals.

A point to note that all these radio broadcasts are done at a frequency that is well beyond the audio range. The audible signal is mounted on a higher frequency carrier wave. There is something else going on that is decoding or separating the signal from the carrier. Something like a high pass filter. Leo is making a point to locate the trouble making part so that something can be done about replacing it.

Resonant frequency! When an analog piece of equipment like an antenna matches the resonance frequency of an analog carrier wave, you will receive the radio station.

That's exactly what your radio does actually. There is a piece of metal that you fine "tune" to a certain resonant frequency. Once a frequency of that same resonant frequency hits it, it receives the signal.

Something in your machine is matching the resonant frequency of that radio station. Find it, remove/replace it, and you should be fine!

Also, its very possible that slightly moving your hardware, even by a couple feet, can fix the problem. Things like the vibrations from your system fans can affect the overall resonance of some of the equipment in your machine as well. It might be as easy as replacing a fan or lowering its speed to reduce vibration as well.

If you have ANY hookup wires arranged in a circle or oval (i.e. a 20 ft. cord when you only need 3 feet), that is probably your "antenna".

I am constantly hearing faint music. Most of the music is probably on my computer in MIDI format. One song will play over and over again. Then it will change to another. Do I need to remove all music stored on my computer? I've never experienced anything like this. It's getting on my nerves. Has someone linked to music on my computer to use on their website? I'm at a loss to understand what is happening, and what to do about it.

I seem to have the opposite problem. I can't listen to my AM receiver when the computer is on. All I get is noise until I shut down or hibernate the computer. They sit next to each other and are plugged into the same power strip. I tried to look for ground loops but I didn't really know what I was doing. The receiver is old enough to still have a two wire power cord so that is probably the culprit.

I have repaired similar problems on many computers by a thorough virus sweep with multiple programs. (AVG, Norton AND Spybot) One of them will find it.
Apparently some sort of feed from a website usually hawking an upcoming movie or sometimes just music.

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