(This one’s for AW)
Uncommonly, the broadcast signals of television or radio stations have been hijacked by people. When this happens, the hijackers are able to replace the signal (the picture and sound) with one of their own. It hasn’t happened frequently, especially in developed countries, and is a crime in most western nations. When it does happen, the substitute signal is usually some sort of protest (for instance a Christian group hijacker Playboy TV in 1987 and replaced the picture with a protest statement).
One of the most unusual cases of broadcast hijacking occured in Chicago America on November 22, 1987. During a three hour window, a hijacker was able to hijack the signal of two separate televison stations and broadcast his own signal. The first incident was early in the evening during a newscast, when the normal signal of WGN-TV was replaced by video of a man wearing a Max Headroom mask swaying in front of a moving sheet of corrugated iron (used to resemble the standard Max Headroom background). It lasted about 30 seconds and there was no sound.
Later that evening, at around 11:15pm, a screening of Doctor Who (specifically The Horror Of Fang Rock) on PBS was replaced by a similar picture, this time with audio. What follows was one of the most bizarre uses of signal hijacking ever recorded.
Rather than describe it, why not watch it in it’s entirety:
What followed were numerous (criminal) investigations, court filings and a plea for community assistance that never amounted to anything.
The perpetrator(s) were never caught or exposed, and to this day remain unknown.
That’s the stuff of nightmares – much more horrible than Fang Rock 🙂