1987 Max Headroom Pirate TV Incident

Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:26 pm » by **Troll2rocks**

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 the accomplices have ever been found or identified.

Image taken from the pirate broadcast.......(video at bottom of post of the incident)

The first occurrence of the signal intrusion took place during WGN-TV (channel 9)'s live telecast of its primetime newscast, The Nine O'Clock News. During Chicago Bears highlights in the sports report, the station's signal was interrupted for about half a minute by a video of a person wearing a Max Headroom mask,[1] standing in front of a swaying sheet of corrugated metal, which imitated the background effect in the Max Headroom TV and movie appearances. There was no audio, only a buzzing noise. The hijack was stopped after engineers at WGN switched the modulation of their studio link to the John Hancock Center transmitter.[2]

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

Later that night, around 11:15 p.m., during a broadcast of the Doctor Who serial Horror of Fang Rock, PBS station WTTW (channel 11)'s signal was hijacked using the same video that was broadcast during the WGN-TV hijack, this time with distorted audio.[1] 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."[3]

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), then tossing the can down, and making an obscene gesture with a rubber extension over his middle finger (the gesture was cut off at the bottom of the screen due to the close-up of the camera) then retrieving the Pepsi can, and saying "Your love is fading", before removing the rubber extension, then began 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 transmission then blacked out and cut off, and the hijack was over after about 90 seconds.[3]

WTTW, which maintains its transmitter atop the Willis Tower (then the Sears Tower), found that its engineers were unable to stop the hijacker. According to station spokesman Anders Yocom, technicians monitoring the transmission "attempted to take corrective measures, but couldn't".[4] "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.

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Well done hacker(s) :flop:

Surf that fucking wave man. :cheers:

Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:29 pm » by **Muchtyman**

Blast from the Past .....Cult viewing

fkn loved that show ........ :mrcool:

Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:31 pm » by **Troll2rocks**

muchtyman wrote:Blast from the Past .....Cult viewing

fkn loved that show ........

Imagine watching it and then that happening lmao.

This was legend in the hacker community. :cheers:

Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:42 pm » by **Troll2rocks**

2020vision wrote:Good post troll it reminds me of this old chesnut:

Upload to Disclose.tv

I heard of that, but I from what I was told it was a fake. (in terms of being a genuine hack and actually happening) who knows though. :flop:

Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:46 pm » by **Troll2rocks**

jetxvii wrote:Legendary indeed, Burst transmission into a secured broadcast...

excellent work.

Exactually, they did good, there is no way that was done by children. Whoever it was certainly got cred in the hacking world

Thanks man

Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:19 pm » by **TheDuck**

Yeah that's awesome, pity they didn't say something like V did though

Reminds me of the Hackers movie when they're playing with the tapes, legend fo sure.

If I could do that it would be hacked every week! :twisted:

Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:22 pm » by **Troll2rocks**

theduck wrote:Yeah that's awesome, pity they didn't say something like V did though

Reminds me of the Hackers movie when they're playing with the tapes, legend fo sure.

If I could do that it would be hacked every week!

Ha ha, yes it is like that scene from havcers, (probly inspired it)

From what I know, Cspan is next lol.

I wish more stuff like that happened. it is far easier than people think (or was before digital encryption)

:cheers:

Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:26 pm » by **Ghost32**

Funny, I posted these same videos and more last week

Max Headroom Hacker Intrusion News Reports

Max Headroom Pirating Incident 1987 Original

We Have No Names, We Are Nameless

Hack The Planet

Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:27 pm » by **TheDuck**

Man I wish they shut tv down completely amongst other things which I won't say incase Echelon starts twitching, Echelon your a 2 dollar hoe, actually no, that's unfair to the hoe