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WGN Channel 9 - The Nine O'Clock News - "The 1st 'Max Headroom' Incident" (1987)
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- Опубликовано: 21 ноя 2017
- Here, shown publicly in its entirety for the first time in 30 years, is the complete broadcast of the initial "Max Headroom Incident" that plagued the sports report that aired within The Nine O'Clock News on WGN Channel 9 one Sunday evening in late November 1987.
The sportscaster was Dan Roan, and reporter/occasional anchor Larry Roderick as well as regular anchor Robert Jordan are also seen towards the end.
This incident occurred more than two hours before WTTW Channel 11 was interrupted by the same broadcast disruption for a longer period of time (and, unlike here, with sound), intruding onto a broadcast of Doctor Who (it can be seen here: • WTTW Chicago - The Max... )
Sadly, this is from a tape dub ( :-\ ), but in some cases such as historically significant events like this, a dub of a tape is preferable to nothing at all (or poor re-creations hobbled together from news footage).
Here's how it went down:
Dan was recapping the Chicago Bears' 30-10 home victory over the Detroit Lions, with pertinent video clips and audio from WGN Radio 720, when about 24 seconds into this clip (at exactly 9:14pm and 25 seconds) the screen goes black for about nine seconds before a Max Headroom impersonator (who, some 30 years later, has still never been identified - publicly) is seen, with a striped moving background behind him, approximately the real Max's computer generated shifting-line background, and "sound" consisting of buzzing noise and an oscillating sound.
After 17 seconds on the air, the ersatz "Headroom" disappears to black (thanks to quick-thinking WGN engineers who switched the frequency of their STL [studio-transmitter link] to the John Hancock Building), and seven seconds after that Mr. Roan returns, wondering as much as the viewers at home what happened (and blaming it on "the computer (!) that we have running our news from time to time"), before starting again, from the very beginning, his Bears report.
This recording then scopes the rest of the Sports report out and cuts to the end of the hockey scores while Robert Jordan (with Larry Roderick seated between him and Dan) suggests half-facetiously that Dan himself may have planned the whole thing, just to show the Bears highlights twice.
My thanks to Chris Bieniek for donating this footage to The Museum of Classic Chicago Television. At the time of the incident, Chris' younger brother was working at a company called Video Monitoring Services (or VMS) in downtown Chicago, and was able to obtain a dub there. They were similar to a clipping service, but for TV news. They had multiple VCRs constantly recording news shows on all channels, and his brother's job was to watch the tapes and write down the time codes whenever a reporter mentioned the name of a company or organization, in case those people wanted to buy all the clips where they were mentioned in the news.
This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, November 22nd 1987 during the 9:14pm to 9:30pm timeframe.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television's primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s and early 80s, primarily) recorded off of any and all Chicago TV channels; footage which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical purposes. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, and to view more of the 4,700+ (and counting) video clips available for viewing in our online archive, please visit us at:
www.fuzzymemories.tv/index.php...
**Corrected identification of second anchor seen at the end of the clip, in the video description**
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (www.FuzzyMemories.TV)
Sunday 11-22-2020
28 years ago, Miley Cyrus's mom went into labor giving birth to her.
33 years ago, Max Headroom incident occurred
57 years ago, John F. Kennedy was assassinated
THAT WAS HARD AND PURE ADVERTISING
E
Gee, I wonder who did that? Hmm. I might know him
That must have been pure nightmare fuel for people watching at that time
Sam Feldstein I think so too
right
Oh my god it was.
When this was reported on the local (UK) news. Started talking about pirates, then a clip of the intrusion. I lost my shit. Had no idea what was going on. Thought it was some demon in the TV. Refused to sleep ever again for fear of nightmares for a few nights after seeing it, and the actual max headroom anywhere was a trigger for at least a month.
I was 28 years old.
@Sam Feldstein
Not nightmare more WTF 😱🤷🏼♀️😂
My dad saw it
Imagine being a kid in the 80s and all of a sudden you see this. You wouldn’t be able to sleep ever again.
Imagine being a kid in the 80s who already knew who Max Headroom was before the internet. I personally would imagine that they'd have gotten the joke before you did. Catch the wave.
Cookie cutter.
@@BigSmoke-bu6ib who pissed in your cereal today lmao.
@@Kaisaccountt my vagina, I don't see why that's relevant tho
@@BigSmoke-bu6ib pause...
So fascinating. To remain a mystery after so many years and no suspects ever caught. I'm captivated by this incident. Creepy, funny, and interesting all at the same time.
I did it
The guy was an professional, for real, not even the FBI catched him
They didn’t catched him?😂
ruclips.net/video/Ew1CFlxPnQs/видео.html
Omg😱
Kudos to Dan for not saying "What the hell was that?" when he returned to the screen
i didnt see that "not" after the "saying" so i just corrected you.
That appears to be added in. He didn't say that.
@@centralfloridagmrs What I was saying is that I was glad he DIDN'T say that and instead brushed it off like it was nothing.
Lmao
no, he SHOULD have said that@@brianhebert6152
This is honestly creepier than the second one, just hearing static sound as a guy wearing a mask and sunglasses stares into your soul.
I KNOW RIGHT!!
No doubt, this one sticks with me more. If I saw this live I would have had nightmares for sure lol
i thought the second one was just funny
I'm surprised Adult Swim never used this footage for a bumper.
Max Headroom is a trademarked character and seeing as it’s owned by an MTV owned station I don’t know if they’d want a competing network using it.
@@ToxPhy However this isn't actual Max Headroom footage, and this footage is not copyright claimed as far as I know.
@@samsquanch1996 I think since Adult Swim does parodies all the time on Robot Chicken, it might be possible for them.
Glad to know that the Lions sucked back then too.
Lol
😂💀
the only good thing to come out from the Lions was Barry Sanders 😪
I was at the game. Wheaton native Chuck Long’s only career start in Chicago and he absolutely stunk up the joint. How this man got within 50 votes of beating Bo Jackson for the Heisman is beyond me.
@@_retroextendo_1455 Megatron?
I remember sitting in a chair in my room that Sunday night, watching the news on a portable GE television, not looking forward to going back to school the next morning...then this happened, and as Dan Roan came back on I thought "what...was...that...?"
Wow that's awesome. Did you tell any of your friends about it the next day? How'd they react?
I was the same
Same, 7th grade when this happened. I didn't see the Channel 11 one, but I remember this was creepy
My father was an avid sports man and this happened on wgn sports, he remembered seeing this at grade 9
b&w or color?
Public circa 1987: What's going on? This is horrifying! Who would do such a thing?!
Public circa 2019: OMG What a guy! This is hilarious! I'd like to buy him a beer!
HAHAHAHAHA
There are people who are horrified by this now and there were people who loved this then.
@@yumallah thank you! People forget that this was the era of Reaganomics, where mainstream bias was more right wing. They had their own silly set of things they found offensive back then, similar to what we see now. Yes, I did just make the Max Headroom incident about politics.
@@BigSmoke-bu6ib Yet this generation was tough as nails compared to left wing bias society today's youth is around.
@@robert7838 to a point. I mean nowadays leftists are the ones who want to censor everything, but in the 80s it was the other way around. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of things from that generation, but people who hold nostalgia have a selective memory and forget all the things that also made their generation shitty
I used to override the intercom at stores with my C.B. radio but could never figure out how they interrupted the television broadcast. Brilliant
apparently the TV station transmitted video via microwave to a much larger transmitter.
the hacker sent stronger microwave signals to the big transmitter, so it would transmit their own message across the state instead.
kind of like somebody using a PA system. nobody can shout louder than a PA system (like a hacker won't have a portable microwave transmitter capable of broadcasting over the entire state), but they can shout over the person using the PA system so that the microphone amplifies more of their voice instead.
Max, wherever and whoever you are, and if you’re still even alive, just know that I think you’re a real American hero.
+
I’m British & as much as I agree, I’d like to add a World-wide hero! We love this ‘story’ in Britain & I know plenty who love it across Europe too! 😊
Woah, thanks so much! Super pleased to finally see the full broadcast, and on the 30th anniversary, no less!
Anyone notice how the whistling sound matches the movement of the background material?
Mike Howard I'm going to make an uneducated guess that it probably has something to do with a limitation of the technology they were using to interrupt the TV channel, and the visual data was getting interpreted as audio incorrectly somehow.
I think you are right, it may have been intentional as the cadence in which he moves his head matches the pulsing distorting sound..
It looks like he's talking behind that mask (may be wrong) and there's no sound. Perhaps his audio equipment was just on the fritz.
Mike Howard After years of watching this - I just now noticed it and went scrolling the comments to see if anyone else had noticed and mentioned it haha!
I was watching the Doctor Who episode on Channel 11 when "Max" broke into the signal. I didn't see the earlier WGN interruption, but the audio changing with the movement of the metal background, suggests to me that the "sheet-metal" might have also been a make-shift microwave antenna of some kind.
Dont Worry homies , it is eminem filming rap god.
Lmaooo i'm dead
lol
I fell like a Rap God
PHEW
+MaxDOS404
That video was inspired by Max Headroom actually
The anchors brushed that off pretty smoothly ngl
Criminal brought me here. Terrifying.
Same. It's definitely... Odd.
Whats that?
@@craziestboyever crime podcast.
Same 👍
Same 😂
I come and revisit this at least once a year. I remeber the reddit thread about the brothers back in 2012 or so. I hope whoever pulled this off is revealed before I die. If you're out there, at least leave the info to be uncovered one day. You're a legend whomever you are.
I guess the brothers have been written off for now, theres another thread by the OP on the first one.
The people who posted to reddit were later revealed to have made that story up, so the actual identities remain unknown. I'm kind of hoping someone confesses at some point, they're long past the statute of limitations now.
By some strange fate, I was watching both 9 and 11 when they happened. Fun to see it again. Imagine the control room scrambling that was going on!!
I live in Russia, and if this was done on channel Russia 1, I would say: BITCH LET ME LISTEN TO SPIEGEL "NEW at 20:00" ORDER I'LL GET YOU TO DRINK VODKA!!
No you weren't, you're lying for no reason
@@firstlast6437 I have no reason to lie. Strange coincidences in life happen.
@@Zuxiasunicorn i seen the wgn one with my grandfather.. after it happened he just said "what the fuck was that?"
@@Dratchev241 I sat watching the first one with my jaw hanging open. Amazed and amused at the same time. The second one I was pretty sure the perp had some amazing hacking skills and took it to the next level with the fly swatter. I remember thinking, "dude this is going on for too long, theyre going to find you." I was sure they would catch the guy sooner or later, but the years went on and he and/or they were never discovered. There's a video here on YT about it, I can't remember if the following info was in the story or the comments. A group of colleagues in the broadcast industry thought they recognized the laughter and speech pattern of an acquaintance of theirs. They described him as accentric, goofy and brilliant with electronics. One mentioned they were at his apartment once which was filled with broadcast equipment not usually available to the average joe. We'll probably never know if this savant-esque individual is the guilty party, but I tip my hat to whoever it was. I was thoroughly entertained.
Okay this would have been terrifying to see live, but now I just find it hilarious.
Thanks! So good to finally see the initial broadcast!!
This was during the same year that abc aired the max headroom show.
A cyberpunk noire type reality in the near future with a sentient computer download of a news reporter's brain that could hop around the computer networks as desired.
For a prank it was ingenious and apropos.
I liked that show. One of the kids collected 80s action figures.
I remember Max Headroom when he first appeared in Coke commercials. A very funny character...and yes, very fitting in this case!
In fact, in one of the episodes, they had to upload Max into a computer to hack a mainframe. To do so, they had to get in close and override the network's signal. It's believed that that was how the pranksters did this: Got into a neighboring parking lot or building, overrode the microwave frequency, and had fun.
That it did.
What's terrible about this is that it is a story that will never be told. But the best stories are the ones we can't tell!!!
Stuff You Should Know sent me here.
Some of the videos never made it to air because of blocking by that pesky WGN. But don't ask me. I moved to Ocala to get away from it all
I think it will be told but not until he retires from working
@@centralfloridagmrsThat's an excellent point and could explain why despite statue of limitations expiring they haven't come forward.,
My dad and his friends watched this at a sports bar on that day and were weirded out
It had to have been college kids in the A/V club. They're the only ones who could have pulled a stunt like that and have the resources and balls to do it.
Wow. Absolutely amazing to see, in such great quality (in comparison to the simulated edit that's been on RUclips for years). Thank you.
wait what do you mean?
Poor bastards that watched this live lol 😂😭😖must have caused quite a spook.
Fandom Girl_20 I was in 7th grade and it was super creepy
@@sz5876
Not me just was like wtf
I was a senior in high school. I didn't see it live but everyone was talking about it.
the Max Headroom incident happened 33 years ago today on Sunday 11-22-20.
Couple years ago on channel 7-2 or 7-3, the programming switched to an unsupervised and unedited but I think a silent feed from one of their cameras in their news stage. It didn't get corrected for over a day.
Oh wow, that's really interesting; thanks for sharing. I wonder if there's any record of it? Just for the sake of curiosity.
I'm sure somebody recorded it. Very strange. it lasted over 24 hours.
damn, that's weird.
Cool have any more info on it
Sounds interesting…I wonder if there’s footage somewhere
This one was likely meant as a test, you can see him moving his head around from side to side and waiting still afterwards, almost like he was watching a screen in front of him and checking the latency of his broadcast.
I don't think the intrusion was done live. I think that pause from the black screen until we see Max, may have been the piraters realizing they were on the air then running the tape. I believe it to be taped because the WTTW intrusion has what seems to be an edit toward the end of the video
No, I think it’s clear that they were trying to get something through, more than likely the same video that plays in the second one, but since this was a bigger network, and it was during daytime, they weren’t able to get it through correctly before being stopped.
@@YMPictures Wasn’t during daytime. It was the WGN 9 O’Clock News. The sportscast typically takes place between 9:30-9:45.
The footage is clearly taped, the later broadcast has a clear cut in footage(when he moves from in front of the camera, to showing his behind in the next shot) which proves it is prerecorded. Also from the footage in this video, note how clear the video is, up until Max Headroom appears, VHS artefacts such as the "skewing" at the top of the picture, the colour banding at the bottom, and the usual VHS "noise" (such as the lines that move up and down the footage) are all shown during the Max Headroom segment of footage. The VHS artefacts all then disappear when the pirates signal is lost.
Thanks for posting this! Great stuff, especially the background story of how the signal was switched and how the footage was obtained.
People in 1987: This is the worst crime imaginable!!
People in 2022: This belongs in a Museum!!
Why did I read this in Indiana jones voice
@@Suitsnstylesguy People in 2022.. Damn Joe Biden was fuckin shit up before he fucked shit up!
w comment
Back then people lived in the cold war period with nuclear annihilation over their heads. Anything beyond normal would be scary.
You can say that Max couldn’t BEAR to hear the news
35 years later and our love is still not fading.
catch the wave？
That was in the WTTW video.
it's a reference to New Coke, which Max Headroom was the "spokesman" for
"Frick'nliberal"
*Singing something*
"My brother is wearing the other one"
"Oh, it's dirty"
You think you're better than Chuck Swirsky?
@@besina69 frickin liberal
Finally! Thank you for posting this!
Imagine how many nightmares this caused.
“ boy that was strange, I think I will change the channel *switches to WTTW* ”
I listened to a podcast from Criminal on this and the newscasters only knew they’d lost signal. They didn’t have any on-air monitors to see the Max Headroom part being broadcast. They only knew they were off air for a bit.
Interestingly enough I just read a long ass transcript article of an interview that included this guy Rick and his pal Bowie that worked a lot on the max headroom hacker case... And now I've stumbled upon Rick's very RUclips channel of which in the interview he stated the max headroom clip was one of the first videos he put up. You've come a long way Rick, and thanks for all the work you've done for the restoration of this clip and so many other timeless recordings!!
Thanks :-)
Oddity Archives covered this too this week nice to see the full clip!
I saw this live as a 5yr old kid back in 87 of November! Wouldn't it be so awesome if the people came forward?
I can't help but laugh because it looks like Max Headroom but on a $15 budget
And the second one feels like they didn't even have the budget to incorporate the "stutter" effect
Glad to finally see this!
When the screen went black everyone watching probably went up close to their TVs to adjust the antenna only to be jump-scared by fake Max Headroom a few seconds later, lol.
Wow he played that off extremely well. Even made a joke out of it.
Well, whats even funnier is that in 1985, when Max Headroom was a thing, his show would play music videos right, and when the show started and ended, there was no credits, nothing....just static at first and then he would show up like he was hijacking your TV. So its really meta. What sucks is that when this gets reported, nobody mentions the actual show and how this hijack really emulated how Max Headroom show would start.
Who ever did this was HARDCORE nerds man, in a good way. But 80's nerds are a whole different breed that what we think of today.
this happened the night i was born. that makes it extra-surreal to me.
It's doubly ironic b/c in the Max Headroom TV show, signal hijacking was a thing, they called it "zipping" and it was a federal crime... I believe punishable by death, in the dystopian TV-ruled future.
Happy 34 anniversary Max Headroom :)
Our love is not fading 😂
This is even funnier/creepier than the one with sound lol
I’m sure the statute of limitations has long since expired on this one. The people responsible should come forward if it is. I’m sure the FCC would love to close the book on this one.
They'll probably reveal their identities while on their deathbed.
One of the most interesting and mysterious events in Chicago media history. Cocaine's a hell of a drug! Watching the WTTW event live was such a weird honor. Bravo to the scoundrel(s) who pulled it off.
I like how the rotating metal panel syncs up with the audio glitches!
It’s scary and extremely interesting at the same time. I’m able to sleep because I just learned about it and an incident hasn’t happened in almost 30 years so I’m not afraid of it happening again
Remember, this was back in the days of analog television. In today's age of digital television, a signal intrusion would be much, much more difficult (if not impossible).
afraid?
It was amazing to watch this, I'm from the UK never seen anything like it at the time.
The funniest thing about the silent version is people could have passed it off as a later portion of the news messing up.
"What's that?"
"Eh, looks like they're talking about some actors or somethin' at the community theater."
"Wow. They look bad."
"Yup."
"What are they even performing?"
"...uh, an avant-garde cyberpunk version of The Scottish Play?"
36 years later still at large
This happening in 1987: “how horrible, what kind of person would do such a thing”
This happening in 2022: “we do a little bit of trolling🗿”
We do a little minuscule silly amount of trolling
This incident is clinically insane.
And I love it.
0:34 there he is
This is actually much more creepy than the second incident
I would have loved to hear the chaos in the control room as the engineers realized what was going on, like near the end of 'The Howling': "Switch, dammit! Switch!"
I understand the jaming was done at the transmitter. It is after the control room so they could do nothing but watch. The studio to transmitter microwave link was interrupted.
This is the One I Remember seeing as a kid...then next day found out about the Dr. Who interruption lol Wild Indeed Chet...Warped My Fragile Young Mind. 👍📼💥
I remember watching Dr. Who on Sunday night and Max Headroom came one.
in 1987. PBS
A high school friend showed me these videos and knew about them because his father had saw this game living in Chicago. I met his father and asked him about it, he cracked up and was surprised it was still being talked about also telling me that when it happened he was sitting at the television then with his now deceased ex-wife who was watching the football game with him from what he told me turned to her then proceeded with, What the fuck just happened but was surprised it’s still talked about and that they never got caught! Haha (he didn’t know there was a second intrusion because he didn’t know about Doctor Who) lol
exept it was during the news not the game and the second incident was a different TV station
@@philly4lifebro what
must have been fucking freaky for those who watched this live!
this is creepy, funny and beautiful all at ONCE
It’s pretty reasonable to say that this was the start of the recording the max hijacker made. You can see through the mouth that he is talking but he perhaps made a mistake that caused the audio to not go through. The WTTW incident is probably from this same recording, starting right after the end of this one.
Why does this give me chills
Cuz u scary af
This made it to the museum? What a legend
Genius at work!!
Imagine Watching television one night of any show you want and the screen all of a sudden went black, you'd be like "What the hell?" Then Max head room appears on screen dancing like an idiot. If I was watching something and that happened I'd be pissed.
he’s honestly just vibing
Don’t kill his vibe
That moment will be 35 years ago tomorrow.
30 years later, the culprit was never identified.
I *LOVE* how the reporters reacted jokingly with this HISTORIC EVENT :p.....
I'm actually listening to a podcast episode now (Criminal, ep 153) that interviews the newscaster. At the time he was only told that they were having technical difficulties, didn't find out about Max Headroom until afterwards. His comments about the computer glitch were just made up on the spot.
Clearly from my point of view, while Max dances, the music is Antenna from Kraftwerk; the boucles in the middle of that masterpiece from the electronic german can be recognized, it is not just sounds generated from a modulation by accident or on purpose by scrambled transmission that would prevent to recognize the tune.
My grandma said she saw this, maybe both, not sure
My aunt used to work for VMS as well. She brought me there with her a few times.
¿
Back when TV was good, bears were winning, Max scaring the shit out of everyone, those were the days!
Max wtf
its creepy that the sound is in sync with the background.
I remember this in 1987. I lived in Cicero back then. About 15 minutes from Chicago. I had one of those small tv’s with the rabbit ears and had a few channels. I remember laughing at it and then I turned off my tv that night after it happened.
You found me!
Congratulations!
In this one he is just vibing
I like to imagine the disgruntled football fans screaming at their Tv's and checking their antenna, only to be greeted by the hijacked Max Headroom signal lol. Only a handful of people could provide their recollection but they will likely never come forward and forgot about it soon after.
I like how every time those bars go horizontal the sound changes. Wonder what the hell is the sciencey shit going on?
Still haven't caught the guys who did this, they're my heroes!
@TashaTheSagittarius
It may have been an inside job
@@rjrenee4783 to accomplish what
@@taylorgalloway2579
To make history/publicity. We're still taking about it 33 yrs later aren't we? 😹 That's how that business works.
RJ Renee yea makes sense, that could be the case but if that tactic works other stations would do the same thing. Who knows
@@taylorgalloway2579 shame that nowadays it isn't easy to hijack a channel
0:36 *SCREAMING*
Now that's just disturbing.
The tune Max Headroom hummed was from the catoon series: "Clutch Cargo"
I still see the X!
We need this today
What the caster says afterwards only makes it spookier "the computers controlling the broadcast took off and went wild"
Just imagine one day it’s 9pm and your watching tv and this dude just comes on your tv for 10 seconds then comes back 2 hours later for 1 minute and 40 seconds
Looks like "Max Headroom" couldn't properly transmit an audio signal the first time! I wonder if the full Max Headroom tape used during the WTTW hijacking is still out there somewhere...
I’m sure “Max” is guarding the tape with his life as we speak! I can probably guess he bought a safe or something and locked it in there
it would be amazing to find the rest of the tape (makes me wonder how much of it we didn't see - maybe it was much longer), sadly i think the hacker would have destroyed it.
however i feel "that does it he's a freakin nerd" fits best immediately after taking over the sports broadcast - with him jumping around for a few moments it wouldn't have the same effect.
i'm probably wrong but it makes me wonder whether maybe there were actually two tapes and two targets - one for WGN and one for WTTW, and that the hacker played the tapes the wrong way round under stress.
Max, if you're reading this - hello! :)
Howdy!
Going Viral before going viral was a thing
Back when a thunderstorm would knock out the 150 mile distant feed from your nearest affiliate station.
Crazy advancement in technology.
Interesting how the noise changed when the background moved, and when "Max" moved around.
THE SOUND THO gives me nostalgia and everything
Just remembered this on this day 22 November holy shit I'm old