To this day, the perpetrators have never been brought to justice, if we can call it that. After a little over a minute of rambling, the broadcast cut to our host getting spanked with a fly swatter by someone off-camera, in tastefully safe-for-work fashion, I might add. Our masked bandit of the airwaves proceeded to make cryptic and borderline unintelligible pronouncements referencing pop culture and Chicago broadcasting while someone in the background rotated a corrugated metal sheet back and forth to imitate Max Headroom’s signature digital backdrop. It was a simpler time, I suppose (Image credit: User Gia Luchiano on Youtube) Max, the officially licensed one that is, even showed up on Letterman once.
The individual who appeared onscreen wore a mask depicting “ Max Headroom,” a satirical late-night host from a sci-fi TV show who became a kind of cult figure in the ’80s.
The perpetrators succeeded in putting out a more powerful signal than the one put out by the networks, a difficult but not impossible task in those analog days. Their later hijacking of WTTW’s late night broadcast of Doctor Who reruns was shown to Chicago viewers in its entirety. On November 22, 1987, would-be hackers interrupted Chicago’s WGN evening news broadcast for nearly half a minute, but their message was cut short by the network. That’s right, I’m talking about the anniversary of the Max Headroom signal intrusion incident. There may be some controversy over this celebration, but most of us still love it for what it represents.
At the end of November, we gather with loved ones and reminisce about a simpler time.