Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident

The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident was a television signal hijacking in Chicago, Illinois, 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 television stations within three hours. Neither the hijacker nor his accomplices have ever been found or identified.

WGN-TV 9

The first occurrence of the signal intrusion took place during WGN-TV's "News at Nine". During Bears highlights in the sports report, the station's signal was interrupted by a video of a person wearing a Max Headroom mask,cite news |first=Don |last=Hayner |title=2 channels interrupted to the Max |work=Chicago Sun-Times |id=CHI265386 |page=3 |date=1987-11-24 |accessdate=2007-10-29 |quote=The first interruption came during Bears highlights on the 9 p.m. newscast of Channel 9. The intruding broadcast, which appeared only in the Chicago area, showed the Headroom character rocking back and forth with hands held in the air. It played for 25 seconds until WGN workers changed transmission paths. ] standing or sitting in front of a swaying sheet of corrugated metal imitating the background effect in the Max Headroom New Coke commercial. There was no audio, only a buzzing noise. The hijack was stopped after 20 seconds when WGN switched the modulation of their studio link to the John Hancock Center transmitter. [http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=776 "Damn Interesting" article, "Remember, Remember the 22nd of November"] ]

The incident left sports reporter Dan Roan flustered, saying, "Well, if you're wondering what happened, so am I."

WTTW 11

Later that night, around 11:15 p.m., during a broadcast of the "Doctor Who" episode "Horror of Fang Rock", PBS station WTTW's signal was hijacked using the same video that was broadcast during the WGN-TV hijack, this time with distorted audio. The person in the Max Headroom mask appeared, as before, this time saying, "That does it. He's a freakin' nerd," before laughing and jeering, "Yeah, I think I'm better than Chuck Swirsky. Freakin' liberal."

The unidentified man continued to utter random phrases, including New Coke's advertising slogan "Catch the Wave" while holding a Pepsi can (Max Headroom was a Coca-Cola spokesperson at the time), saying "Your love is fading", humming the theme song to "Clutch Cargo", and stating that he had "made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds" (the call letters WGN are an abbreviation for "World's Greatest Newspaper", in reference to the Tribune Company's Chicago Tribune). He then held up a glove, said "my brother is wearing the other one", and put the glove on. He then took the glove off, adding that it was "dirty."

The picture suddenly cut over to a shot of the man's lower torso. His buttocks were exposed, and he was holding the now-removed mask up to the camera while being spanked with a flyswatter by an unidentified accomplice wearing a dress, as the man exclaimed "They're coming to get me!". The accomplice then said, "Bend over, bitch!" [ [http://hack247.co.uk/2008/01/06/max-headroom-1987-pirate-tv-incident/ hack247 ] ] . The man then said, "Do it!" and moaned. The transmission then blacked out and cut off, and the hijack was over after about 90 seconds.

Reaction

WTTW, which maintains its transmitter atop the Sears Tower, found that its engineers were unable to stop the hijacker [cite news |first=John |last=Carmody |title=NBC Lands Gorbachev Interview (The TV Column) |work=Washington Post |id=95520 |page=D1 |date=1987-11-24 |accessdate=2007-10-29 |quote=According to [WTTW] spokesman Anders Yocom, station technicians monitoring the transmission "attempted to take corrective measures, but couldn't". ] because at the time there were no engineers on duty at the Sears Tower. Also, the station's master control center was unable to contact its transmitting equipment remotely to switch the studio/transmitter link, unlike their counterparts at WGN-TV, who were able to thwart the intruder by switching their John Hancock Center studio/transmitter link remotely within seconds. [ [http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/TOLMES/tns14 "Tolmes News Service" (TNS) article] ]

The Max Headroom incident made national headlines and was reported on the "CBS Evening News" the next day.

WTTW and WGN-TV join HBO as victims of broadcast signal intrusion. [cite news |title=Bogus 'Max Headroom' Interrupts Broadcasts On 2 Chicago Stations |work=Philadelphia Inquirer |id=8703130089 |page=C05 |date=1987-11-24 |accessdate=2007-10-29 |quote=The incident was similar to a series of programming break-ins on Home Box Office during the summer by a man calling himself "Captain Midnight." ] There has not been a verified broadcast intrusion incident of this kind in America since, although almost twenty years after this incident, Australia and the Czech Republic had similar occurrences of broadcast intrusion.

ee Also

* Captain Midnight, another broadcast hijacker
* Culture jamming

References

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM7Q1WiepoQ "Reproduction" of the WGN intrusion]
* [http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/screen.php?c=59&m=max%20headroom%20pirate&p=1 Recorded video of the WTTW intrusion]
* [http://www.hack247.co.uk/2008/01/06/max-headroom-1987-pirate-tv-incident/ Video of the intrusion with cleaned up audio]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5mzkt4N77s CBS News Report about the incident] (YouTube video)
* [http://winstonengle.tripod.com/chicagowho/maxhead.htm The Infamous "Max Headroom" Incident] (article)
* [http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/5.63.html#subj2 Video signal piracy hits WGN/WTTW] (article)
* [http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/TOLMES/tns14 Collection of news articles about the incident]