Something like this happened when I was a kid and it scared the heck out of me. Suddenly there was this loud garbled voice booming from the stereo speakers. I thought it was the devil or something. Turned out to be the radio enthusiast who lived next door. There was a big antenna in their backyard, so they were probably broadcasting with some power. Plus my dad had the whole Hi-Fi rigged up with lamp cords.

I knew someone who lived two blocks from a radio station, and they would get interference everywhere, there would be staticky top 40 music coming from the phones, from clock radios, from the stereo. It would come and go. They would complain, the radio station would fix something, but in a few months it would be back.

> Plus my dad had the whole Hi-Fi rigged up with lamp cords.

He was probably onto something.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/coat-hanger-wire-is-just-as-goo...

It seems like a bit of a stretch, but in theory - depending on the details of the radio, and the power being emitted by the neighbor's station - you might be able to get some audio from a "powered off" radio. Maybe it's doing something like what happens when a crystal radio[1] absorbs enough power inductively to generate its audio.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio

I've heard stories of unplugged loudspeakers turning into AM radios with enough power pumped into the air, so there's that too.

AM radio has all kinds of "fun" properties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHSuInSkHtA

Listening to the tranmission using the arc the tower generates to ground!

Nice! But I like the Russian (or Ukrainian?) approach better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMuJKsUjD_o

Holy %!#@! That is one of the most interesting things I've ever seen.

Can confirm.