Posted on 11/22/2017 12:17:23 PM PST by Ciaphas Cain
For 25 seconds in 1987, in the middle of WGN-TV anchor Dan Roan’s sportscast, thousands of Chicagoans’ feeds were replaced with a low analog whine and the eery image of a masked man nodding over and over as if in a state of mania. “If you’re wondering what’s happened, so am I,” Roan said to his audience once WGN regained control of the signal. What he couldn’t have known is that the rest of the world would still be wondering to this day.
9:14pm CST today marks 30 years since one of the most unusual hacks in history: the Max Headroom signal intrusion. One of them wearing a mask of fictional AI TV host and New Coke spokesthing Max Headroom, the pranksters hijacked two stations that November evening—first WGN-TV, and two hours later an even more memorable takeover of WTTW during a broadcast of Dr. Who.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
My pal edited that show. I really liked the show, it was quirky.
That was an excellent troll.
Great show. I was _so_ the target audience at the time (quintessential teen computer nerd).
[digs out show DVDs to watch again]
Another famous 80's satellite hack was when HBO's signal was taken over for a brief time by Captain Midnight with color bars and graphics that said "$12.95/month? No way!"
Blank Reg: a fellow who understood the value of his personal info being absent from all govt and commercial databases.
Yeah, I’ll have to visit some YouTubes. I thought it was rather clever. I was working *near* video production at the time (selling the gear, not the actual production) but the technology was fascinating and there was so much money in Hollywood buying all manner of video gadgets, not to mention Lockheed and Hughes (who actually bought as much or more than Hwd as far as I was concerned, because the big studios all had direct deals with the mfrs) Those were spectacular times. I made tons of money and wandered into fascinating places.
A classic prank.
BTW, the show was quite good. Much better than most everything else on TV at the time. I guess the audience was too niche because it didn’t last long.
The all time best was when Howard Cosell was calling some Monday Night Baseball or Football game and some guy cut into the audio and said “Howard Cosell, the great state of Texas hates your f#$%ing guts!”
I just happened to be watching HBO when this happened. I called my wife into the room so that she could witness Captain Midnight's shenanigans! :-)
Captain Midnight slices HBO signal (see the video below at the 2:10 mark);
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbruOe6Yii0
I had forgotten Captain Midnight hijacked the airing of the movie, “The Falcon and the Snowman”! Good! Screw Sean Penn! :-)
In DC, there was a sports radio host named Ken Beatrice. Once he was interviewing the then-head coach of the Capitals, Jim Schoenfeld, who had gotten into a spat with referee Don Koharski. Suddenly, someone broke into the phone conversation claiming to be Koharski.
Sometime later, when Beatrice was interviewing then-Redskins General Manager Charlie Casserly, someone broke into the conversation claiming to be his predecessor Bobby Beathard.
Both times, the caller claimed to be calling with an emergency.a
Bttt.
5.56mm
I was watching Dr. Who that night. Really freaky.
L
The Max Headroom hackers are still at large because they are Russians. No one thought to look there until Hillary told us.
I got my own stupid 15 year old stuff there also.
Jeez, it's not like the crime of the century.
I DID find it interesting that they figured out by triangulation where the pirated broadcast came from.
But they never found out who did it.
Kind of reminded me of the movie Used Cars where Lenny and Squiggy do the same thing to shoot a commercial.
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