(Far-fetched theories that have little chance of solving the problem also welcome, of course.)

Quick and obvious joke: it's part of a new method for NPR to do pledge drives.

Otherwise, 'round here (and I'm assuming you're still around here) radio reception is kinda weird. My last car had its radio die soon after I moved to SLO, and I still suspect Clear Channel killed it. The only driving I've done in the last year has been rental cars with digital radios and they have always been quirky... but most often around SLO.

I figured Newt's PAC somehow infiltrated the signal, actually. The station always seems to be going after him when I have it on (which is why I've been listening to it more, actually).

But this morning it kept cutting off "Car Talk" and that just will not do.

I wonder if it has to do with the car being warmed up and thus better able to pick up radio waves. Or something (Nota bene: I have no idea what I'm talking about).

But I have also noticed this on home sets. I usually attribute that to changes in the weather (see note) but hadn't seen it happen in the car.

A: It could be due to there being different transmitters on difference frequencies in your area, none of them very strong (for the given station). Car radios will generally auto-fine-tune to the station you set it on, it's quite possible that after being turned off it may lose that fine tuning and not know where the station is (stuck in the middle without ewes [as the bishop said to the actress]).

B: Shortly the static will be interrupted by a voice repeating the number sequence: 4, 8 15, 16, 11, 21.

Ooh, Bunty, that makes some sense.

this morning it kept cutting off "Car Talk"

Maybe the car caught Click & Clack giving some bad advice and didn't WANT you to hear any more.

Might be a beat frequency between the car's computer and the FM tuner interstage. Needs somebody with an oh-so-silly-scope to check it out. A spectrum analyzer wouldn't hurt either.

Either that or it's time to call in the Hong Kong Cavaliers.

Battery gives off a bit of shock when you turn on the car? A little electricity running thru' the car's metal is common. Newbie tai chi students sometimes go to their teacher and say they think they're developing chi because they feel a small shock when they open their car door, to which the reply is, "Maybe ground your battery a little better."

Battery gives off a bit of shock when you turn on the car? A little electricity running thru' the car's metal is common.

Seems like that would affect all the stations, though, right?

Seems like that would affect all the stations, though, right?

Yeah, sure seems like it.
/grasping ;-)

Seconding Bunty.

The ignition - meaning the electronics involved in firing the spark plugs - is a known cause of interference in older analog car radios. Electric sparks and the circuits that drive them spray out radio-frequency noise all over the spectrum, and the radio needs to be designed to ignore the interference.

Digital radio signals change the situation a bit, and in ways I am not qualified to comment on. Still, I'd imagine that the initial startup sequence of turning the key & firing the starter motor could be noisy enough to disrupt whatever error-checking and buffering the radio is doing on the signal, and by tuning off and then on again, you are re-establishing the signal lock. I'm extrapolating a bit from an old analog technique called "Automatic Frequency Control" but I expect Digital uses similar negative feedback techniques to stay tuned to a signal.

Sealed with a curse as sharp as a knife. Doomed is your soul and damned is your life.

-Lord John Whorfin