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It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's creepy and weird.
I've heard of a TV station's signal being hijacked before, but here's one I somehow missed. It happened in Britain in November 1977, when someone mysteriously hijacked a newscast in progress on a network called "Southern TV," and replaced it with a warning by a supposed alien, "Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command," who delivered a message to Earth to live in peace - or else.
It lasted only a few minutes and then disappeared. All these years later, the perpetrator has never been found.
Another famous unsolved TV interruption happened over WGN-TV in Chicago. It, too, took place in November, this time 1987, when an episode of "Doctor Who" was suddenly interrupted by some masked moron dressed as Max Headroom, who proceeded to take over the signal for several minutes with a rambling message and a very odd moment when someone whips his bare behind.
Despite investigations by authorities, no one has ever been caught for this extremely bizarre moment in television history and it has become legendary.
There have been a few other incidents like this, but they're very rare since the person behind it has to have the equipment and knowledge to do it - all while leaving no trace.
The last instance of this didn't take place on terrestrial TV but rather on a national cable outlet. When HBO announced it would be scrambling its signal to defeat C-Band (aka Big Dish) satellite owners who were picking it up for free, an outraged viewer with access to satellite equipment and a knowledge of engineering, proceeded to interrupt the movie channel's signal with a warning message from "Captain Midnight."
On April 26, 1986, he broke into a showing of the film "The Falcon and the Snowman" to express his outrage with a polite but firm anti-scrambling message. (It starts around the 1:50 minute mark on the video below.)
This time, they got the guy. He was John R. MacDougall, a disgruntled satellite dealer who watched his business fall off when HBO led the way to scrambling and had access to a satellite via his second job at a Florida uplink centre. He was traced, found, and ultimately got off pretty easy with a $5,000 fine and a year's probation.
You can read about how he did it here.
Incredibly, MacDougall is still in the satellite business and even brags about his moment of infamy on his website.
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Actually, the Max Headroom incident(s) happened on two Chicago TV stations, the first one on WGN-TV during the sports segment of their 9pm newscast. The interruption lasted only about 20 seconds, as the engineers were able to quickly switch the frequency of the signal linking the broadcast studio to the transmitter. Other than a buzzing sound, there was no audio with this clip.
The second interruption (the "spanking incident"), happened about two hours later at Chicago's PBS station, WTTW-TV, during their broadcast of the Doctor Who episode, Horror of Fang Rock. Because there was no engineer on duty at the time, they were not able to counteract the interruption, leaving the video to play out for about a minute and a half, which got more bizarre as it played on.
Wikipedia - Max Headroom signal hijacking
PJ
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Thanks for setting that straight. I'd always heard it was WGN, and I guess it was, but I'd forgotten all about the PBS one that followed. (It only makes sense - that outlet was more likely to be showing an episode of "Dr. Who.")
Either way, it was definitely one of the weirdest pirate broadcasts in history. And we know there were at least two people involved - the spanker and the spankee.
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Funny how the alien voice in the British radio incident had a BBC-type British accent.
Cause, yeah, that's how aliens sound.
Just like some old Second World War movies where all the Nazis speak in English and have perfect Oxford accents.
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I've seen and read news stories saying that whoever the perpetrators were, they must've had extensive knowledge as to how TV transmissions work, that this was no amateur hack job. Whatever the case, the statute of limitations on prosecuting this crime has long passed, so even if the perpetrators finally stepped up to the plate and admitted to doing it, they won't get charged.
By the way, there was a third interruption involving Max Headroom at a Chicago TV station, this one at NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV, although this one appeared to be an inside prank.
PJ
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Here was the WGN TV incident in its entirety
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ED1 wrote:
Here was the WGN TV incident in its entirety
That one I've never seen. I like how they blame it on a haywire computer!