![]() We speak with Dan Roan, Larry Ocker, Al Skierkiewicz, Jim Higgins, and Matt Frewer. As one television viewer said, it felt like someone threw “a brick through your window.” A little boy said it was “very, very funny.” And then, two hours later it happened again on a different channel-WTTW-during a broadcast of Dr. ![]() The interruption lasted about 30 seconds. ![]() He supposedly came from our “not so distant future”-a future where the world is run by TV executives. The mask was the face of a fictional character from 1985 named Max Headroom, who was supposed to be the world’s first computer generated TV host. ![]() Illegal broadcast showing Max Headroom Impostor doing non-sense things. Then a person appeared, dancing back and forth in front of a moving striped background, and wearing a mask. Max Headroom Pirating Incident: With Anonymous, Eric Fournier, Max Headroom Hijacker. Sportscaster Dan Roan had been talking about the Chicago Bears, when the screen suddenly went black. At the time perpetrators could have faced a maximum fine of $100,000 and up to a year in prison, however, the statute of limitations expired in 1992.One Sunday night in November 1987, something very odd happened in the middle of the WGN nine o’clock news in Chicago. Theories suggest that the prank was an inside job by a disgruntled employee or former employee of WGN or carried out by members of Chicago’s underground hacker community. Courtesy: John Humphreys, In Jean-Luc Godard’s 1969 film, Le Gai Savoir (Joy of Learning), the characters talk in an empty TV studio, searching for images ‘of a society reduced to its simplest expression’. The stunt required technical expertise and significant transmitting power. Actor Matt Frewer being made up in the latex mask designed by sculptor John Humphreys for Max Headroom, c.1984. Experts believe that the pirate broadcast originated from somewhere in the line of sight of the two stations’ towers, which were on tall buildings in downtown Chicago. The FCC believes the hijack was accomplished by sending a stronger microwave transmission to the broadcast towers of two Chicago television stations than what they were transmitting themselves. The image faded briefly into static, and then viewers were returned to the Doctor Who broadcast after a total interruption of about 90 seconds. Instead, what Chicagoans were treated to was some dork wearing a Max Headroom mask dropping his pants and getting a spanking from his accomplice (also. The hijacker had complete control until they ended their broadcast. This time the transmission could not be stopped because there were no engineers on duty at the broadcast tower which sit a top of the Sear’s tower. The hijacked broadcast gets stranger from there. He then claims to have made a “giant masterpiece for all the Greatest World Newspaper nerds” referring to WGN’s call letters stand for “World’s Greatest Newspaper”. He calls Chuck Swirsky “a frickin nerd” and a “frickin’ liberal” and then says “Catch the wave” while holding up a Pepsi can. On November 22nd 1987, two stations in Chicago, Illinois were hijacked by an unknown individual dressed as Max Headroom (. Max Headroom impersonator is back but this time with distorted audio. PBS station WTTW is airing the Doctor Who serial Horror of Fang Rock when the show is interrupted. ![]() This continues for another 20 seconds until broadcast engineers switch the frequency of the signal that links the studio to the broadcast tower.ĭan Roan returns on air and says “Well, if you’re wondering what’s happened, so am I” then jokes that the computer “took off and went wild.” before resuming his report on the Chicago Bears game. It appears he’s talking but all you can hear is static and a buzzing sound. Fifteen seconds later a person appears wearing a Max Headroom mask and sunglasses. Chicago viewers are watching anchor Dan Roan’s sports segment on WGN’s Nine O’Clock News when the screen turns black. ![]()
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