Cb Radio Makes Irritating Neighbor Unwelcome Guest City Suggests Court Order; Fcc Favors Ineffective Filters

For more than a year, neighbors of Jeff Stevens have heard his voice blaring over their televisions, stereos, telephones and answering machines.

Even when they turn the volume way down, their neighbor’s voice booms out as he talks on his CB radio, using language that his neighbors find obnoxious and often obscene.

Sound effects include jarring beeps, whistles and echoes.

“We’ve told the guy, ‘We’ve got no problem with you using your radio, but just use it at a reasonable hour, and get rid of your animal noises, kazoos and your kids singing Christmas carols,”’ said neighbor Mike Fenn.

Adds neighbor Penie Manning, “I’m trying to find a job, and I can’t even talk to (an employer) on the phone. It’s so embarrassing.”

Neighbors have asked the Federal Communications Commission, TCI Cablevision and U S West for help, to no avail.

They even brought a recording of Stevens singing to a Medford City Council meeting last week.

City Attorney Gene Hart and Jackson County District Attorney Mark Huddleston say the problem has never come up before, but they’re looking into it.

Stevens said he is operating a legal, grounded system, transmitting at three watts of power with a 60-foot antenna.

One possibility, Hart suggested, is for neighbors to ask a judge to declare the noise a common-law nuisance and get a court order shutting it down.

Without an ordinance, he said he didn’t know if there was anything the city could do.

Neighbors say calls to the FCC have been routed to a recording that tells them to contact electronic equipment manufacturers to get filters.

The neighbors have tried the filters, but say they don’t work.

TCI Cablevision and U S West technicians have checked the lines several times.

John Winston, assistant bureau chief for the FCC’s Compliance Information Bureau in Washington, D.C., said the agency cannot investigate the thousands of complaints it gets. In 95 percent of the cases, CB operators are found to be within the law, he said.

The FCC does follow up on complaints substantiated by local authorities, he said.

Manufacturers could make their TVs, VCRs and telephones interference-free at a cost of 25 cents to $1 per item, Winston said.