Video - Max Headroom Signal Intrusion

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Viking-Sensei
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Video - Max Headroom Signal Intrusion

Post by Viking-Sensei »

I recently ran across this, and thought it was just awesome...

Video of "Max Headroom's" Video Pirate attack

Back in 1987, someone in Chicago had too much free time on their hands. Much too much free time on their hands, apparently... dressed up like Max Headroom (complete with giant sheet of metal in the background swinging back and forth to simulate the background in the real Max Headroom videos), this guy overwhelmed a couple tv station transmitters with his own video feed, wherein he spouts random catch-phrasy sayings, mumbles, sings, and receives a spanking with a flyswatter from a (presumably) female accomplice in a dress who is mostly off screen.

According to the historical record (aka Wikipedia), the guy in this video first attacked WGN during their 9 PM newscast, overwhelming their transmitter with his signal and breaking in during the sports report with his video for about 20 seconds before the station switched frequencies and blocked the pirate signal.

That set things up for the big attack later in the evening... during an episode of Doctor Who (Horror of Fang Rock, in case you were wondering) airing on the PBS station WTTW, the guy broke in again, this time successfully interrupting the program for a full 90 seconds (and obviously for longer than his tape was). Fortunately, several persons out there had their VCRs running, so we have good copies of that attack. According to the article, the guy also attacked several other stations that night, but was never able again to break through with the same degree of success.

This goes up there with the fantastic Vrillon incident back in 1977 where someone claiming to be from "Vrillon of Ashtar Galactic Command" overwhelmed the audio portion of a BBC newscast for a good 6 minutes, speaking to the populace of humanity of peace, love, and our universal destiny.
How could a plan this awesome possibly fail?
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Sareth
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Re: Video - Max Headroom Signal Intrusion

Post by Sareth »

I couldn't understand a word he said. But I imagine the response by the public was very amusing to cynics like me...

Thanks for pointing that out! I don't remember hearing about it before, and it was fun.
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Re: Video - Max Headroom Signal Intrusion

Post by Viking-Sensei »

I just love things like this... the little wierd things that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. If I'd been in Chicago and had been watching (which I probably would have been) I would've had creeped out nightmares that night... but I still like things like this.

Sort of like that group that performed a fairly big "reality hack" a few years ago... there was a tv channel that broadcast a news ticker over CCTV feed of local landscapes in the morning, just panaramas sweeping across hills and valleys and bays (this was not in the USA, obviously) with music playing under it. Well, this group hijacked one of the CCTV feeds and replaced the live video of a valley with pre-recorded and slightly edited video of the same valley... with a fairly well-made CGI nuclear explosiongoing off in the center of it. The camera even gets distorted and fades to white noise as the fake EMP wave hits it and disrupts it's electronic components... and then the image switches to the next video feed, just like nothing ever happened.
How could a plan this awesome possibly fail?
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Vavrek
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Re: Video - Max Headroom Signal Intrusion

Post by Vavrek »

Both of those are nothing short of incredible. They're reminders that the little people of the world still exist, and the channels of communication are not uniformly dominated by the large corporations and organizations.

And that the little people have a wonderfully sick sense of humor.
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davester65
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Re: Video - Max Headroom Signal Intrusion

Post by davester65 »

That is so cool. I was in Chicago for part of 1987, and I don't remember this happening, and I watched Dr. Who regularly. Must have been when I wasn't around.
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