Vernacular anomaly?

Folks, when you turn on your TV and it isn't hooked up to cable or an antenna, what do you call what you see on the screen? You know, when all it's receiving is the ambient radiation all around us.

I've been on the phones 40 hours a week for a full month now and I've heard people call it snow, nothing, fuzz, black and white, dots, ants, and blur. The one thing I've never heard anyone call it is the name that I thought was completely universal for the phenomenon: static. In fact, whenever I say the word over the phone my customers actually seem to become confused as if I'm using some kind of technical term that's over their head. I'm pretty sure static isn't a strictly technical term. It's all I've ever known this picture type by. I mean, technically wouldn't you call it white noise, or background radiation or something like that? Please do chime in if the space between channels, or radio frequencies with a signal being broadcast on them is called static to you. I'm starting to feel like I must be an alien for knowing this term, though I never had cause to question it before.

http://san-lurenzo.myminicity.com