November 22, 1987: Gas was 90 cents per gallon, The Running Man was #1 at the box office, Dirty Dancing topped the Billboard album charts, and Chicago residents had a very weird and possibly creepy once-in-a-lifetime TV event…
That evening, two separate cases of signal piracy occurred. The first instance happened to Chicago’s famous WGN Channel 9 TV station. However, this was during the local 9 PM News and not part of the national Superstation feed. An unknown individual managed to hijack the TV feed and broadcast a video wearing a Max Headroom mask.
Then a few hours later, another hijacking happened. This time, it was on Chicago’s PBS affiliate, WTTW Channel 11. It also happened during a broadcast of the 1977 Doctor Who story Horror Of Fang Rock.
Max Headroom, portrayed by actor Matt Frewer, was a viral sensation at the time thanks to a cult-favorite TV movie and many Coca-Cola commercials. He even hosted shows on MTV for a while. Thus, masks were a popular thing that year, especially for Halloween costumes.
It’s also worth noting that TV was vastly different than it is today. Regular network television was broadcast to analog antennas, not like the encrypted digital signals we have today. This was also long before the internet, let alone streaming services, became commonplace.
Now, 35 years later, the identities of the perpetrators remain unknown. The case was never officially solved, though many theories and tributes have surfaced since.
