Here's my story. '97 with stock cassette radio. I live about 20 miles from dowtown Chicago. For the last two years, I've had satellite radio (gone since Jan 1), so I didn't listen to regular FM radio. I'm unsure when this issue started.

Now in the morning (6:30 AM) on the way to work the radio comes in poorly on most local Chicago FM stations with audible static about half the time. On the way home from work 3:30 PM the radio seems to work fine, but If I use the scan function, only one radio station stops the scan, and work is only 12 miles from downtown. It seems the radio used to have better reception. What could be my issue? Do antennas or attenna cables go bad? How do you test reception and these components? Thank You!

 

What sat. radio unit did you have? was it connected with an FM modulator?

 

It was Sirrius with and external FM modulator. No radio connections were touched to make satellite work.

 

with an external FM mod.? then just make sure the modulator is out of the truck now, if it's still plugged in take it out and hook up the antenna directly to the stereo.. hopefully that's all

 

I found the issue, though I wasn't able to completely correct it. The antenna cable and radio connection in the dash in back of the radio was rusty. I have no clue how it got that way or if water is/was leaking into the dash. I sanded both sides of the connection. It's still a little funky. The plug had to be just the right amount into the radio and twisted the right way to get radio reception which was good enough but still seemed less than it should be. I guess it's time to start thinking about a new antenna wire and upgrading to a factory CD player

 

I found an old thread on here. The guy had an issue where water was coming through the factory antenna cable rusting the back of the radio and the plug. I guess I'll get a cable ordered.