The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion was a television signal
hijacking that occurred in Chicago, Illinois, United States on the evening
of November 22, 1987. It is an example of what is known in the television
business as broadcast signal intrusion. The intruder was successful in
interrupting two broadcast television stations within the course of three
hours. Neither the hijacker nor any known accomplices have ever been found,
caught or identified, which leaves the incident unsolved.
WGN-TV The first occurrence of the signal
intrusion took place during then-independent station WGN-TV's live
telecast of its primetime newscast, The Nine O'Clock News. During highlights
from the Chicago Bears' 30–10 home victory over the Detroit Lions that
afternoon in the sports report, the screen went black for 15 seconds, then
returned with a person wearing a Max Headroom mask and sunglasses, moving
around and jumping. His head was in front of a sheet of moving corrugated
metal, which imitated the background effect used in the Max Headroom TV and
movie appearances. There was no audio other than a buzzing noise and an
oscillating sound. The hijack was stopped after engineers at WGN switched
the frequency of their studio link to the John Hancock Center transmitter.
The incident left sports anchor Dan Roan bemused, saying, "Well, if you're
wondering what's happened, so am I." He then unsuccessfully tried to repeat what
he was saying before the incident occurred.
WTTW Later that night, around 11:15 p.m.
Central Time, during a broadcast of the Doctor Who serial "Horror of Fang Rock",
PBS member station WTTW's signal was hijacked by the same person, apparently,
that was broadcast during the WGN-TV hijack, this time with distorted and
crackling audio. The episode of Doctor Who was
interrupted by television static, to which an unidentified man appeared,
mentioning WGN pundit, Chuck Swirsky, whom he says he is better than as well
as calling Swirsky a "Fucking/Freaking Liberal". The man started to moan,
scream and laugh. He continued to laugh and utter various random and unrelated
phrases, including New Coke's advertising slogan "Catch the Wave"
while holding a Pepsi can, then tossing the can down, leaning towards the camera
and giving the finger wearing a rubber extension over his middle finger,
although it was hard to see the gesture. He then retrieved the Pepsi can, and
sang "Your love is fading", before removing the rubber extension, then
began humming the theme song to Clutch Cargo, pausing to say "I still see the
X" , which referred to the final episode of the series, before resuming humming
again. He then began to moan painfully, exclaiming about his piles, after which
an indistinguishable flatulence sound was heard. He then stated that he had
"made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds". He then
held up a glove and said, "My brother is wearing the other one," and he put the
glove on, "but it's dirty! Looks like you got footprints on it!" He then threw
the glove down in disgust. The picture suddenly cut over to a shot
of the man's lower torso. His buttocks were partly exposed, and he was holding
the now-removed mask up to the camera, howling, "They're coming to get me!" An
unidentified accomplice wearing a French maid outfit said to him, "Bend over,
bitch!" The accomplice then started to spank the
man with a flyswatter as the man screamed loudly. The transmission then
blacked out for a few seconds before resuming the Doctor Who episode in
progress; the hijack lasted for about 90 seconds.
WTTW, which maintained its transmitter atop the Sears Tower, found that its
engineers were unable to stop the hijacker, due to the high microwave
signals that the hijacker was using, as well as the fact that there were no
engineers on duty at the Sears Tower at the time of the hijacking. According to
station spokesman Anders Yocom, technicians monitoring the transmission
"attempted to take corrective measures, but couldn't." "By the time our people
began looking into what was going on, it was over," he told the Chicago Tribune.
WTTW was able to find copies of the hijacker's telecast with the help of
Doctor Who fans who had been taping the show.
Reaction WTTW and WGN-TV joined HBO as victims of
broadcast signal intrusion. The Max Headroom incident made national
headlines and was reported on the CBS Evening News the next day. WTTW received
numerous phone calls from viewers who wondered what was occurring for the
duration of the station being targeted. Not long after the incident, WMAQ-TV
humorously inserted clips of the hijacking into a newscast during Mark
Giangreco's sports highlights. "A lot of people thought it was real – the pirate
cutting into our broadcast. We got all kinds of calls about it," said
Giangreco. The most famous usage of the incident is
probably when parts of the video were included in some episodes of the
animated talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. One can see the bobbing figure of
the Max Headroom intruder going by when Moltar is switching feeds to get Space
Ghost his next guest. See also
Southern Television broadcast interruption
Captain Midnight broadcast signal intrusion
References External links
"Reproduction" of the WGN intrusion on YouTube
Max Headroom WTTW Pirating Incident - 1187 on YouTube
Max Headroom Video Pirate Incident in Chicago on 111987 on YouTube
Max Headroom Pirate Intrusion IMDb The Infamous "Max Headroom" Incident
Video signal piracy hits WGN/WTTW