UNSOLVED: The Creepiest TV Hack in History

[Music]. november 22nd 1987 was a pretty normal. evening for television viewers in. chicago. that night like every night dan roan was. covering sports on wgn tv channel 9. then suddenly the signal was disrupted. and screens across the city. cut to black engineers at wgn tv thought. their transmitters were failing. they weren't a few seconds later this.

happened. what this wgn's broadcast signal had. been hijacked in what is now known as. the max headroom incident. wgn tv was able to act quickly and get. their signal back. but two hours later it would happen. again to another tv station. and there was nothing they could do to. stop it so what happens next remains one.

of the most bizarre. unsolved crimes in television history. let's find out why. [Music]. because you are going to see it as well. yes it. yes it yes namely the max syndrome. stream. story at 9 14 p.m dan roan disappeared. from wgn tv. in fact everything disappeared then 15. seconds later. something crazy happened wearing a. rubber mask and sunglasses.

the hacker looked like artificial. intelligence television character max. headroom. the new max didn't say anything but that. doesn't make him any less frightening. after about 30 seconds of horror. technicians at wgn were able to switch. their uplink frequency and bring dan. rohn back on the air. and he did a nice job of keeping his. composure but he. clearly was unsettled well if you're. wondering what's happened so am i. actually the computer that we have. running our news from time to time. took off and went wild the engineers. figured that this was an inside job.

conducted by an employee so they started. tearing apart the studio. looking for the perpetrator they didn't. find anyone turns out the pirate. broadcast was pre-recorded. and the signal was hacked by a third. party but somehow this third party was. able to intercept the wgn uplink and. push their own signal through wgn tv's. antenna. on top of the john hancock building but. the tv pirates weren't finished yet. two hours later on pbs channel 11 in the. middle of a doctor who episode. max was back and this time he had lots.

to say. that is the only way to learn i'll get. you a hot drink. some dry clothing these are freaking. nerves. i think that they're just worse. [Music]. oh jesus. [Applause]. [Music].

me. [Music]. is. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music].

oh. oh i just made a giant bastard case for. all. the greatest world newspaper nerds. my brother wearing the other one. [Music]. [Music].

as far as i can tell a massive electric. shock he died instantly. no really what the actual so for this. second performance there were no. engineers on duty they had gone home for. the day so the transmission played all. the way through. and when it was over the signal was. returned to channel 11. and barely an hour later the fcc and the. fbi began an investigation that would. turn the. entire television industry upside down.

the hunt for max headroom was on. oh look at that you cannot beat that for. a first prize. well you can't but i can now most tv. viewers in 1987. the face of max headroom was instantly. recognizable he was called the world's. first computer generated tv host. max headroom originally appeared in the. cyberpunk tv movie. max headroom 20 minutes into the future. which was broadcast in 1985.

in fact he had a show on the air at the. time it ran on channel 4 in the uk. and on abc in the us from 1987 to 1988. the show was eventually cancelled when. it was beaten in the ratings by miami. vice. [Music]. oh it's tough to compete with crackit. and tubs it is. a late night talk show on cinemax and a. few tv specials. had made max headroom a cult sensation. and eventually he would become an 80s. icon. the max headroom story takes place in a.

dystopian future. and in this future television networks. rule the world even the government. functions as a puppet of the network. executives whose job is mainly to pass. laws to keep people watching like. removing off switches from tvs. a tv technology had advanced to the. point that viewers physical movements. and thoughts. could be monitored through their. television sets i bet. facebook and google love this future. the only real check on the power of the. networks is edison carter. an investigative journalist who exposes.

their unethical practices. now the networks don't like this but. carter gets big ratings so they have to. keep him around. so one day he's injured in a motorcycle. accident and the last thing he sees. before he blacks out. is a sign that says max headroom 2.3. meters. oh so desperate to maintain ratings with. its star reporter. the network hires a hacker to upload. carter's mind into an ai. and max headroom was born and despite. what most people think. max was not really computerized he was. played by matt frewer who wore makeup.

and prosthetics and sat in front of a. blue screen. max headroom was designed to be a parody. of real-life tv newscasters where the. line between news and entertainment. was getting more and more blurry that. line is gone now. it definitely is max headroom was. conceived as a cyberpunk on mainstream. tv a voice to rail against the. establishment and corporate. conglomerates. and the world he described in 1987. turned out to be. pretty close to what we're living now. have you any idea how 666 successful.

censorship is on tv don't know the. answer. successful isn't it. okay let's break down the video and how. the hacker managed to pull this off in. the first place. max starts with he's a freaking nerd. the people have speculated that the. beginning of the video was cut off so. we're not really sure what he means. but we do know how he created this voice. by running the audio feed through an. analog.

ring modulator you can create this. effect and it might not have been an. accident that max hijacked a doctor who. episode doctor who fans are very. familiar with the evil daleks. famous for saying. [Music]. and to create the daleks voice the audio. was run through a ring modulator now. today this is completely done with. software but in 1987. this would have been done with an analog. effects pedal that could have been. purchased from any music shop. so maybe max was a doctor who fan.

max is referring to the chicago bulls. announcer who is then wgn radio's top. sportscaster. the background behind him was a cheap. piece of corrugated metal that you can. get at any hardware store. it was mounted on some kind of spindle. that was rotated by someone off camera. now holding what looks to be a marital. aid. max yells the new coke slogan catch the. wave. max headroom was the spokesperson for a. huge coca-cola campaign. and made this catchphrase instantly. famous more people are as we.

go colleges say catching the way. catch it if you can can catch the wave. coke. um excuse me yeah so the guy who's. against huge corporations. had a brand deal with a huge corporation. ah i see the hypocrisy in that anyway. maxton hums the theme to the 1960s. cartoon clutch cargo and says i still. see the x. [Music]. now this is a direct reference to clutch.

cargo's final episode. i want to take a closer look at that. thing break out the spacesuits better. right clutch you know i don't like the. human mouth on those characters. oh you don't like that huh not one bit. it creeps me out. i know how you feel by the way that type. of animation is called syncrobox. and it was used in the 50s and 60s as a. way to keep animation costs down it was. also used frequently on conan in the 90s. and early 2000s in case it looks. familiar. just want to wish you and all your loved. ones a very happy.

you're fired okay well donald trump. everybody yeah i don't care for that. next max says i just made a giant. masterpiece for all the greatest world. newspaper nerds. now this is another dig at chicago's. television establishment. the call sign of the station wgn was an. abbreviation for world's greatest. newspaper a slogan taken from the. chicago tribune. and the tribune owned the tv station now. let's see how he did it. this one for the video pirates who. managed to scramble chicago airwaves the.

pirates interrupted wgn. and wttw programming with a show of. their own. our mike kersh has more someone wants to. get into your house. they can find a way to do that and i. guess likewise if someone wants to. interfere with your signal they can find. a way to do that. while some viewers were entertained by. this prank the stations and the. government. were not amused officials from the fcc. pledged to track down the perpetrators. and bring them to justice. agents from the fbi's chicago field. office also joined the investigation. like to inform anybody involved in this.

kind of thing that. there's a maximum penalty of a hundred. thousand dollars. uh one year in jail or both there was a. growing fear among law enforcement. the military and communications experts. that our signals were vulnerable. imagine the chaos you can cause if you. tried something like this with. military transmissions at the time of. the max headroom hack. broadcast signal intrusions were. considered rare limited to small. low power stations and special knowledge. was required and equipment that. cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or. more were needed a city like chicago.

didn't think they were vulnerable. to hijack a television or radio station. signal you don't even have to be in the. studio. how many stations work is the signal is. sent on low power from the studio to a. big antenna. this is called the studio transmitter. link or stl. then the big antenna takes the stl. amplifies it and broadcasts it. max knew this and was able to position a. piece of equipment in between the studio. and the tower then all he had to do was. transmit to the tower on the correct. frequency and push out a signal that had.

more power than the studios. apparently somebody with some microwave. equipment was able to. interfere with our signal going to the. hancock transmitter well this is not. just anybody off the street he has to. have an electronic expertise of some. level right. yes he does it takes very sophisticated. equipment to uh to do this. at a significant power level now. obviously this takes a lot of knowledge. about telecommunications. but if you have good line of sight to. the tower it could be done with. relatively cheap equipment. now before you get the idea that you. want to try this remember a.

it's illegal and b signals are now. encrypted so. that system really wouldn't work now max. probably didn't come up with this idea. himself. just one year earlier hbo endured an. embarrassing hack. this intrusion was perpetrated by the. now infamous captain midnight. there is nothing wrong with your. television set. do not attempt to adjust the picture we. are controlling transmission april 27.

1986 that night hbo broadcast the falcon. and the snowman. falcon in a winter soldier snowman yeah. i don't think you're right about that. i am anyway at around 32 minutes past. midnight the screen flickered into color. bars with a message. superimposed on top. i love this guy lasting about four and a.

half minutes. the message from captain midnight was. america's first known. broadcast signal intrusion hbo execs. didn't publicly discuss the incident. which was a protest of the recently. announced price hike within a few days. fcc investigators had found the hacker. captain midnight was a satellite. technician named john mcdougall. who worked for a satellite uplink. company in ocala florida at the end of. his shift. mcdougall flipped a dish in the. direction of hbo satellite and broadcast. his message. overpowering the network signal he. explained to investigators that he was.

frustrated that the network's rising. fees. which hurt his other business selling. satellite tv equipment. after pleading guilty to charges of. transmitting without a license. a violation of federal law mcdougall. paid a five thousand dollar fine. now to this day mcdougall doesn't regret. the incident. he said hbo was deliberately gouging. satellite customers in order to get them. to switch to cable now it turns out. he was 100 right that's exactly what hbo. was doing and it worked. just because something's not legal. doesn't mean it's not right.

i couldn't agree more it generated. hundreds of calls really kind of. expressing. uh sympathy over the fact that. our signal would be interfered with us. in this way and that it would. inconvenience so many thousands of our. viewers. the incidents are now under. investigation by the fcc. and the fbi but the odds i'd say if a. guy continues to. involve himself either sporadically or. continuously it's very great that we. will.

determine who it is the investigation. into the max headroom incident went on. for a while but eventually the trail. went cold. the fcc and fbi weren't prepared for. this type of investigation and the. agencies. weren't cooperating with each other ever. since 1987. people have speculated about who max was. from local dial-up bbs's. to reddit there are tons of theories. eventually each theory is debunked. and to this day nobody has come forward. now most people believe that it was an. employee. with an axe to grind against wgn but.

nobody really knows for sure. there was no message there was no motive. and decades later no perpetrator. it seems like it was done purely for the. curiosity. and the glory of simply doing it that's. good enough for me. thanks for hanging out with us today my. name is aj that's hecklefish this has. been the y-files. if you had fun or learned anything today. comment like subscribe. share really helps out the channel the. algorithm is a succubus. who wants to seduce us and harvest our. essence. but with your help we can defeat her.

when you say essence do you mean never. mind that. until next time be safe be kind and know. that you. are appreciated. [Music].

you.