# Radio Broadcasts Through Teeth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-broadcasts-through-teeth/604825>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 2, 2011, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-broadcasts-through-teeth/604825 "2011-12-02T12:09:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![newport](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@newport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newport)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-broadcasts-through-teeth/604825/1 "2011-12-02T12:09:46Z")

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I live in Cincinnati, and have always heard stories about how people could hear WLW through their teeth when they were broadcasting at 500,000 watts. It was said that people would hear it in pipes and metal fences. I don’t know if the stories are true, or if it was ever verified, but the stories are well known around Cincinnati.

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**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-broadcasts-through-teeth/604825/2 "2011-12-02T12:15:28Z")

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[Article in question.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/657/is-it-possible-to-hear-radio-broadcasts-through-your-teeth)

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**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-broadcasts-through-teeth/604825/3 "2011-12-02T22:35:14Z")

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I have to think this kind of thing was a lot more common back in the clear-channel days. I used to live about 3/4-mile from a 50kW transmitter, and that was bad enough. Not close enough for pipes and radiators and stoves (though I knew folks who were), but, certainly, anything electronic was subject to serious interference (something that only got worse and worse as semiconductor counts went up and manufacturers skimped on filtration).