WHEELING, WV -- Residents of a Wheeling neighborhood made some noise in City Council Tuesday night.

Their concern, the loud car stereo systems rocking the suburbs.

In the middle of a warm night in Wheeling, many drivers rolled down the windows and cranked up their stereos.

Wheeling resident Charlie Ballouz says it doesn't even sound like music.

"It's just BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" says Ballouz.

Ballouz and another woman from Elm Grove petitioned city council for help Tuesday evening.

"I live on the seventh floor," says Ballouz. "I can hear that from down on the ground and it vibrates a little bit up here on the 7th floor."

The City of Wheeling already has a noise ordinance on the books, but residents at Tuesday's council meeting say it really doesn't have any teeth. They're proposing giving police the power to disconnect loud stereos on the spot.

Akron, Ohio already has a similar law on the books.

Wheeling Councilman Barry Crow, who's gotten behind get-tough plans like confiscating the cars of drug dealers, thinks the idea of giving police the power to silence stereos just might work.

"I think his point is well-taken," says Crow. "And we'll have to look at that and see if we can look at that ordinance again and maybe change it just a little bit."

There is bound to be debate over whether the right to free speech covers the right to blast the bass.

City Manager Bob Herron says he researched a similar law when he was working in Ohio, but wasn't sure whether it would fly in West Virginia.

Wheeling's mayor said he'd pass the idea on to the city's public safety committee.

-Eric Minor, NEWS 9