Media student Charlie Curran,produced this documentary covering what happend on a crazy night in 1987
It is one of the weirdest and scariest things to ever happen in Chicago TV history and it took place on November 22nd, 1987: The Max Headroom Incident.
Thirty years ago today, someone interupted the broadcast transmissisons of WTTW Channel 11 and WGN Channel 9 several times while wearing a mask of 80’s scifi TV character Max Headroom, spouting off insults towards a local news reporters, making fun of soda commercials, and giving the camera the bird. The whole vibe of it was sudden, and apparently clear to everyone watching that this was not a part of the regularly scheduled shows they were watching. The broadcast pirate appeared again to get smacked on the butt with a fly swater. This bizarre scene played out on TV screens across Chicagoland and northwest Indiana, but the person (or persons) behind have never been caught.
This is the first interruption which affected WGN during a news broadcast. Note, the hijacker on camera references WGN in a critical manner during the second intruption.
Here is video of the secondl broadcast takeover as viewers saw it in real time. It occurred first during an episode of ‘Dr. Who’ on WTTW. This one is must longer and you can actually hear his looney tirade throgh muffled audio.
In 2010, a post on Reddit was last known online discussion of who might have been behind this whole thing, but if you read through the thread you will see the lead grow cold.
Thanks to Riot Fest for reminding us about this incredibly odd story.
