Also spelled “birdie,” this refers to an undesirable whistling sound that bleeds into the station frequency. The problem is common for several reasons. A lousy tacked-on ferrite stick often put in meretricious radios, interference, weak station. Radiolabs does a good job of explaining unwanted signal noise, pointing out that AM technology is “out-dated” and that the medium wave frequency band is especially “vulnerable” largely because of interference produced by other nearby gadgets: dimmer switches, televisions, computers, cable modems, etc.
Tolerated by the average listener, birdy is unbearable for the persnickety radiophile who will go to great lengths to eliminate it.
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