VILLA HILLS, Ky. — Residents of a northern Kentucky neighborhood said radio signals from nearby towers are causing all kinds of issues.
On top of that, they get little to no cell phone service, causing some to worry about the safety of their living situation.
“It’s hard to justify a million-dollar home when you can’t utilize everything on a day-to-day basis,” said Jordan Niernberger, resident of the Sanctuary Village in Villa Hills.
Or as resident Krystyna Cobb put it, “It just doesn’t make it very enjoyable to live back here when you have such a nice neighborhood and such a nice city," who added cell phone service "has always been really spotty here."
Heather Jansen, Villa Hills mayor, said there are pockets of no cell coverage throughout the city because of a lack of towers. But the towers' proximity to Sanctuary Village is what residents said are causing other issues.
“You can’t predict when it’s going to happen, and it can just affect your day-to-day life,” Niernberger said.
The towers, which iHeartRadio own, and the radio signals are showing up in and around people’s homes in unwanted ways.
“A lot of the houses through this street right here had issues, where our smoke detectors were going off constantly, garage doors weren’t working, washers and dryers weren’t working," Cobb said. "Anything that had a small voltage wire wouldn’t work. Some of them will actually pick up the radio signal through their computer headsets.”
Niernberger said it has affected his car.
“If our vehicle is parked in the garage or right outside the garage, there’s some type of interference that is basically causing it to try to open the trunk or try to start the car," he said. "Basically, every morning, I have to jump-start my vehicle."
Cobb even shared a video her husband took of radio frequency coming in through natural gas lines connected to their stove.
These issues might seem harmless, but there’s a real concern about safety.
“If a fire happens and someone can’t trust their alarms, or if an emergency happens and you need to call 911 and your internet’s not working and your cell phone reception’s not working because of these issues, it’s obviously a danger to not only us, but our neighbors as well,” Niernberger said.
"How are you supposed to get ahold of anybody or what happens in case of an emergency?” Cobb added.
Jansen said the city is aware of the issue, which residents said is intermittent, and is looking into solutions. But it’s possible there may not be one.
“Proximity is certainly going to be a hard thing to fight,” she said. “I don’t know specifically, but we’ve certainly been reaching out to everybody we possibly can to see if this can get fixed.”
Spectrum News 1 reached out to iHeart for comment to see if anything can be done and has not yet received a response.
City officials also wanted to clarify there are no safety concerns at River Ridge Elementary School, which has landlines in each classroom to compensate for the lack of cell service.