Residents of

a Fayette County community are tuned in to an Atlanta rap radio station

... but not by choice.

Signals from

a transmission antenna on a cell tower off Swanson Road are coming through

loud and clear in Gaelic Glen subdivision near Tyrone, says Wes Wilkins.

"It's

coming through on the telephone, television, stereo and computer speakers,"

said Wilkins, who added that he has talked to his neighbors and more than

80 percent of them have the same problems.

"It's

24 hours a day," he said, "and sometimes some pretty obscene

things come out of the mouths of those disc jockeys. That's where free

speech needs to end is when I can't turn it off," he added.

When the problem

first started, Wilkins said, he thought it was a flaw in his telephone.

He called BellSouth, who sent a technician out. "When he saw the

tower, he said, 'That's your problem,'" said Wilkins.

Radio station

WHTA 107.9 responded to the community's concerns by sending technicians

out with filters, Wilkins said, but that solution was unsuccessful.

Neighbors have

asked for help from the Federal Communications Commission, but so far

the agency has taken a hands-off attitude, he said.

An FCC spokesman

confirmed this week that the agency won't get involved until the community

and the radio station have exhausted all possible solutions. "If

there is no solution and the station is doing nothing wrong, many times

these communities have to live with it," said a spokesman, who added

that the problem is "not uncommon."

Phone calls

from The Citizen to the radio station have not been returned.

Wilkins said

one other solution has been suggested ... the Radio One cell tower that

holds the station's antenna could be increased in height so the antenna

could be placed higher and its signal would be less likely to interfere

with the surrounding neighborhood.

But the tower

is an eyesore already, Wilkins said. "We just looked up one day and

it was there," he said. "And if it doesn't work, we're still

stuck with [the interference] and we've gotten a higher tower out of it."

That solution

may not be viable anyway. The tower already is 500 feet tall, the maximum

allowable under Fayette County's ordinances. Increasing it would require

that the tower owners go before the county Zoning Board of Appeals and

ask for a variance.