20 age ago today , during a programme of a Dr. Who episode on WTTW TV channel 11 in Chicago , a video pirate took over the airwaves dressed as Max Headroom ( think back him ? ) . wear a mask and standing in front of a motivate backcloth , the video sea robber rambled for a couple minutes in a tough - to - understand voice and then voluntarily went off the breeze . Who was this hoaxer , and what was he trying to accomplish ?
dear head . No one knows who he was or what the tip of the broadcasts were ( it was actually the second of the eventide , with the first being a poor clip of the same picture broadcast during the evening news on a unlike channel ) . It ’s not like there was a message really , either . The ramblings are pretty problematical to make out , and when you do they do n’t make a whole lot of good sense .
That ’s not to say that it was brushed off as not that big a muckle ; the FCC really launched an probe essay to figure out just who this Max Headroom persona was to no avail .
How exactly did he do it ? An article from the November 24 , 1987 Chicago Sun - Times explicate it thusly :
“ It ’s reasonably apparent it was local , ” said Robert Strutzel , WGN director of applied science . Strutzel excuse that the intrusions could have come from a high - hike flat or a roof between the WGN transmitter on the Northwest Side at 2501 W. Bradley and its feeler atop the Hancock Building .
“ It ’s not the kind of thing that ’s done by somebody in his basement , ” Strutzel pronounce . “ It ’s sophisticated microwave equipment at pretty high ability levels to get the best our instalment . And the way for error is very little . ”
commercial-grade - class equipment of this sort would be around $ 25,000 and could be carry in a few suitcases , he said – or the equipment could be rented .
You ’ve got ta assume that it ’d be next to impossible to do something like this today with cable’s length and orbiter caller controlling how hoi polloi get their idiot box in most plaza , but it could plausibly still be done to the great unwashed get post over the tune in major metropolitan areas . You ’d just hope if someone did it today they ’d pick a costume with more cultural staying office , no ? [ TNSviaFark ]
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