Maxed Out
The Curious Case of a Pirate Signal
đ The Mystery
Unlike the previous episodes, which focused on a missing person, this mystery is a little bit different. This involves a pirate TV signal. Now, a pirate television station is an unauthorized broadcast television station that operates without a valid broadcast license. Thatâs a word salad to basically say that someone used the airwaves without government consent.
Although not exactly the same, my step-dad in Cuba once built an antenna where we received signals that were broadcast from fancy hotels aimed at tourists. This antenna was illegal. So, while we were not ourselves broadcasting anything, we were clandestinely pirating a broadcast that was not mean for us. Eventually, we had to take it down or face dire legal consequences.
Todayâs mystery though deals with two intrusions that took place in 1987.
Welcome to the fourth episode of season one of Learn with Me. Over the remaining four episodes, we will be talking about mysterious disappearances in history. Some you may have heard of, some you will be hearing about for the first time, but either way, I assure you that you will be captivated by these stories.
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Now onto our episode.
November 22, 1987, was a typical evening for WGN sports anchor Dan Roan. He was in the middle of reporting about the Chicago Bears when viewers at home witnessed their screens going black for approximately fifteen seconds, only to be replaced by an eerie sight: a person donning a Max Headroom mask and sunglasses.
đ Quick Aside
Max Headroom, portrayed by actor Matt Frewer, was a fictional character known as "the first computer-generated TV presenter." Although advertised as a "computer-generated" character, some people genuinely believed it, but in reality, Max was brought to life by Frewer himself, donning prosthetic makeup, contact lenses, and a plastic molded suit while seated in front of a blue screen.
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The first pirated signal was bizarre. The person wearing the Max Headroom mask moved erratically set against a rotating corrugated metal panel, while at the same time staticky noise played in the background. This lasted about 20 seconds, dumbfounding audiences at home, as well as Dan Roan. The engineers at WGN were able to regain control of their airwaves.
Roan quipped, "Well, if you're wondering what's happened, so am I.â Then he went on to talk about the Chicago Bears once again.
The second interruption happened that same night, at about 11:20 p.m. A local PBS station, WTTW, was interrupted during an airing of Doctor Who. The same person as before, wearing the Max Headroom masked appeared. If the first one was bizarre, this one was on a whole different level of weird.
From Wikipediaâs description:
The masked figure made a comment about "nerds", called WGN sportscaster Chuck Swirsky a "frickin' liberal", held up a can of Pepsi while saying "Catch the wave" (a slogan from an ad campaign for Coca-Cola featuring the Max Headroom character),and held up a middle finger inside what appeared to be a hollowed-out dildo. The figure then ran through a series of quick comments and song snippets interspersed with excited noises and exclamations. "Max" sang the phrase "Your love is fading"; hummed part of the theme song to the 1959 animated series Clutch Cargo and said, "I still see the X!" (This was a reference to the last episode of that show, which is sometimes misheard as "I stole CBS.") He also feigned defecation (complaining of his piles) and explained that he had "made a giant masterpiece for all the Greatest World Newspaper nerds" (WGN's call letters stand for "World's Greatest Newspaper"), and discussed sharing a pair of dirty gloves with his brother. After a crude video edit, the person had moved mostly offscreen to the left with his partially exposed buttocks visible from the side, with a female figure wearing a French maid costume and what appears to be a mask appearing on the right edge of the frame. The (unworn) Max Headroom mask was briefly held in view while the voice cried out, "Oh no, they're coming to get me! Ah, make it stop!" and the female figure began spanking "Max" with a flyswatter. The image faded briefly into static, and then viewers were returned to the Doctor Who broadcast after a total interruption of about 90 seconds.
Or, you can also watch it below and see for yourself.
Strange doesnât even begin to describe it. There were no engineers on hand that evening, so no one was around to stop it. The signal ended because the pirates wanted it to.
The only way that such an intrusion was possible was to send a more powerful microwave transmission than those of the stationâs broadcast towers. That wasnât an easy thing to do in 1987, although clearly not impossible.
There was an investigation, but the source of the signal was never found. The perpetrators and their accomplices were never discovered. The statute of limitations for the crime passed in 1992, meaning that those responsible could come forward and admit to the bizarre prank without fear of repercussion, but they have never done so.
The fact that 36 years later no one knows who is responsible is baffling to me.