The Max Headroom Broadcast Intrusion

At 9:14 on the evening of Sunday, November 22, 1987, viewers in Chicago who were watching the sports report on WGN-TV’s nine o’clock news saw the screen suddenly go black.

For a moment there was silence. Then an image appeared: a figure wearing a rubber mask of Max Headroom — a stuttering, computer-generated television character who was hugely popular at the time — bobbing and swaying in front of a rotating background of corrugated metal, like a cheap imitation of the character’s famous animated backdrop. There was no sound except a buzzing hum.

The image lasted about twenty-five seconds. Then WGN’s engineers managed to switch frequencies, and the station’s sportscaster reappeared, looking bewildered. “Well,” he said, “if you’re wondering what happened, so am I.”

Someone had hijacked a major television station’s signal.

Two hours later, they did it again.

Doctor Who

At about 11:15 that night, viewers watching an episode of the British science fiction series Doctor Who on WTTW, Chicago’s public television station, saw the picture suddenly cut out.

The same figure in the Max Headroom mask appeared, in front of the same corrugated metal background. This time, there was sound — distorted, garbled, but audible.

For about ninety seconds, the masked figure rambled, laughed and made strange noises. He made references to a cola brand’s advertising slogan, to a WGN sportscaster, and to an old animated television series. He hummed part of a theme song. He held up a soda can. He wore a glove on one hand.

Near the end, the scene shifted. The masked figure was bent over, and a second person, who appeared to be a woman, began spanking him with a flyswatter as he cried out. Then the screen cut back to Doctor Who.

Because WTTW didn’t have engineers monitoring its transmitter on a Sunday night, the station couldn’t stop the broadcast. It simply ran its course.

How They Did It

Investigators and engineers later figured out, in general terms, how the intrusion had been done.

Television stations at the time sent their signals from their studios to their transmitters, often located on top of tall buildings, using microwave links. The hijacker had apparently overpowered those links with a stronger signal of their own, aimed at the transmitting antenna, which then broadcast the hijacker’s signal instead of the station’s programming.

To do that, the hijacker needed technical knowledge, expensive equipment and a good line of sight to the transmitters on top of the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center, two of the tallest buildings in the world at the time. It wasn’t something an amateur could easily do.

The Investigation

The Federal Communications Commission investigated, along with the FBI. Interfering with a broadcast signal was a federal crime, punishable by fines and prison time.

Investigators interviewed engineers, technicians and others in the Chicago area who might have had the skills and equipment to carry out the intrusion. They chased tips. They studied the tapes.

They never identified the people behind it.

The Theories

Over the years, the Max Headroom incident has become a cult legend, and internet sleuths have spent countless hours analyzing the recordings and trying to identify the hijackers.

Many believe the perpetrators were people with insider knowledge of Chicago’s broadcast industry — perhaps disgruntled former employees, or engineers with a grudge against WGN. The references in the broadcast to a WGN sportscaster and to things that would have been familiar to Chicagoans of the era suggested a local connection.

In 2010, a man posting on the online forum Reddit claimed to know who was behind it: two brothers from Chicago, whom he described as eccentric and technically skilled. His claims have never been confirmed, and the people he pointed to have never been charged. Others have proposed different suspects. None has ever been proven.

Because of the statute of limitations, even if the hijackers were identified today, they could not be prosecuted for the broadcast.

Why It’s Frightening

Nobody was hurt in the Max Headroom incident. In some ways, it was a prank — weird, juvenile and harmless.

But people who saw it at the time describe it as deeply unsettling. You’re sitting in your living room, watching the evening news or a favorite science fiction show, and suddenly the screen goes dark, and a distorted figure in a grinning rubber mask appears, swaying and buzzing, staring out at you. There’s no explanation. No one at the station knows what’s happening. No one knows who it is.

In 1987, television felt solid and official. The idea that anyone could break into it, and take it over, and speak directly into millions of homes, was terrifying. And the fact that the people who did it have never been found only makes the recordings more eerie to watch.