Criminal - The Max Headroom Incident

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

One Sunday night in November 1987, something very odd happened in the middle of the WGN nine o’clock news in Chicago. Sportscaster Dan Roan had been talking about the Chicago Bears, when the screen suddenly went black. Then a person appeared, dancing back and forth in front of a moving striped background, and wearing a mask. The mask was the face of a fictional character from 1985 named Max Headroom, who was supposed to be the world’s first computer generated TV host. He supposedly came from our “not so distant future”—a future where the world is run by TV executives. The interruption lasted about 30 seconds. And then, two hours later it happened again on a different channel—WTTW—during a broadcast of Dr. Who. As one television viewer said, it felt like someone threw “a brick through your window.” A little boy said it was “very, very funny.” We speak with Dan Roan, Larry Ocker, Al Skierkiewicz, Jim Higgins, and Matt Frewer. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.  Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums,

and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts. Botox Cosmetic, Adabotulinum Toxin A, FDA approved for over 20 years. So, talk to your specialist to see if Botox Cosmetic is right for you. For full prescribing information, including boxed warning, visit BotoxCosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300. Remember to ask for Botox Cosmetic by name. To see for yourself and learn more, visit BotoxCosmetic.com.

That's BotoxCosmetic.com. That's BotoxCosmetic.com. Hi, it's Phoebe. One of our favorite things to do is to bring the show out on the road and perform stories live. We've done it for years now, all over the country. It's really just a chance for people to see me screw up reading lines. But we've always thought it was a lot of fun to be able to look out into the audience and see people's reactions to these stories right away for people to see me screw up reading lines. But we've always thought it was a lot of fun to be able to look out into the audience and see people's reactions to these stories right away. Maybe they're laughing.

Maybe they've fallen asleep. Depends on the city. Just kidding. We were planning on going out on a tour right after the coronavirus pandemic began, and we had to cancel that. We hope we'll get back out there to maybe see all of you one day again soon. Until then, we thought we'd bring you one of our favorite stories

that we've ever done live. If you like, you can close your eyes and pretend you're in a theater somewhere, looking up at a big screen on stage. On Sunday night, November 22, 1987, something very odd happened in the middle of the 9 o'clock news in Chicago. McMahon and McKinnon, 14-0 Bears. Then the defense, which hadn't put up a sack in 12 quarters, finally did. Well, if you're wondering what's happened, so am I. This is Dan Roan. He was a sportscaster at WGN in Chicago.

I was in the middle of a sportscast and we were talking about the Bears and all of a sudden being in studio we didn't have the off-air feed available we just had our studio feed so I was just told in my ear by a producer that we're having some signal difficulties and we'll get back as soon as we can so that was a little disconcerting at the time and then they said well we're coming back up in five four three, 3, 2, 1. And my reaction was what it was. I said, if you're wondering what happened, so am I. Dan Roan is still the sportscaster at WGN today.

I'm from Chicago and have been seeing him on TV since I was a little girl. WGN is a major network. It used to be owned by the same company that owns the Chicago Tribune. And for a long time, it's where all the Chicago Cubs games were broadcast. It's not some small-time station with a tiny transmitter. And then we were trying to figure out exactly how somebody could get away with this, you know, how somebody could actually physically do it. They had to be stationed between our broadcast location studio there on Bradley Place in Chicago and our transmitter

downtown. So they had to get in between there somehow and break into the signal. I thought the funny thing about it was, as far as I remember, there was only one copy of the actual off air and it was immediately locked into the news director's office, into a cabinet, and no one saw it. So I think whatever's out there, YouTube or whatever, is somebody who just happened to be taping the news that night for some reason on a VHS machine, and he got what he got. The interruption lasts around 30 seconds.

First, the screen goes black. And then after a few seconds, a person appears wearing a brown suit and a black tie. They're wearing a rubber mask, dancing back and forth and nodding their head. In the background, a big piece of what looks like corrugated metal is tilting back and forth. The edges of the video are distorted. The mask that this person is wearing is the face of a fictional character from 1985 named Max Hedrum.

Max Hedrum here. Yes, that enormous cacus to Cinemax. I reallyroom here. Yes, that enormous cacus to Cinemax. I really am here. The original Max Talking Headroom show. Max Headroom was a TV talk show host who was supposed to be from our not-so-distant future. A future where the world is run by TV executives. Malicious, power-hungry TV executives who make it a crime to turn off your television. When a television news reporter gets into an accident, a hacker rebuilds him as a computer, Max Hedrum, the world's first computer-generated TV host, coming at you from 20 minutes into the future. So when someone in this Max Hedrum mask actually did come at you, in the middle of the nine o'clock news, fiction and reality merged, and for some viewers,

it was terrifying. We're sort of trained as viewers that the only time a TV show is interrupted is because something bad has happened, or is about to. And then, two hours later, on a completely different channel, it happened again, during a broadcast of Doctor Who. You should talk often with the old ones of your tribe. That is the only way to learn. I'll get you a hot drink, miss. Why, don't you like that? Because he's a freaking nerd.

He's got the chips roasting him. What a nut. What appears to be the same person, wearing the same suit and mask, comes back onto the screen. But this time, they're talking. The person leans down and picks up a can of Pepsi, then throws it at the camera. Then they start waving their head back and forth before bringing their face right up to the camera lens. Then they start dancing and singing.

They keep pointing their finger at the camera. Then they bend over, and it looks like the video cuts to them with their pants pulled down, exposing their rear end. Someone else is on the screen, too. It appears to be a woman, with her head out of the frame, and she starts spanking this person with a fly swatter. And then it's over. It lasted just over a minute. As long as I can tell a massive electric shock, he died instantly. The generator! This time it happened on Chicago's WTTW, the PBS station. I got a call from the master control operator that told me that they had lost control of

the transmitter and someone else was broadcasting on our airways. This is Larry Oker. He wasn't just an engineer at WTTW, he was the engineer in charge of all the engineers. He was at home, not watching television, when his phone rang. They had control of everything. We couldn't even turn the transmitter off. We couldn't do anything until they went off the air. It was loss of complete control.

I mean, I can think of the different kind of nightmare calls that engineers would get, but if someone calling, saying, we've lost control, it's about as bad as it gets, huh? It's about as bad as it gets. It's terrible. You can't turn it off. You can't turn on it. You can't do anything.

They can put anything they want on the air. When I saw the video of it, I kept thinking to myself, this seems like a dream. Yes, sort of like a dream. Yes, how dreams are fuzzy, and you really don't think you're watching what you're watching. It's sort of like a dream, yes, of how dreams are fuzzy and you really don't think you're watching what you're watching. It's sort of like a dream. It was shortly after 6 o'clock, somewhere between 6 and 7,

when he came in and informed me what had taken place overnight. This is Al Skirkowitz. He was a broadcast engineer for WTTW for 40 years. Larry Ocher was his boss. He had just arrived at work when Larry told him the news. For a broadcast operation to be interjected that way, it's a serious invasion. It's like somebody breaking into your house. It interrupts your air and you're very proud of the quality of your air signal and the programmings that you actually broadcast. So to have somebody take that over from you became sort of personal for every one of our engineering staff. Al Skirkowitz says he knew exactly who Max Headroom was when he heard about it,

and that it's kind of funny that the person in the video was throwing cans of Pepsi, not Coke. At the time, this was in 1987, Max Headroom was a character that was supposed to be the very first virtual person. And it was used for a Coke ad campaign. And so he had this kind of straight up hair that was not really hair. He looked like it was a cartoon character of sorts, but it was a popular campaign for Coke at the time. And so that made it possible for people to buy Max Headroom masks for Halloween, for instance. So you could go to any Halloween store and pick up one of these Max Headroom masks for Halloween, for instance. So you could go to any Halloween store and pick up one of these Max Headroom masks

that would slip over your head. So this image was pretty well known. Yes, it was. The hack was major news in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune described it as evidently the work of a sophisticated video pirate with an unsophisticated sense of humor. News stations interviewed people

who'd seen the incidents live on their televisions. One man said, I got so upset that I wanted to bust the TV set. Another man said that whoever did this just wanted attention and that the interruption was like throwing a brick through a window. A young boy simply said it was very, very funny. And then the next evening I'm in the office and we've got CBS National News on and there I am.

Dan Roan. On a national news broadcast, they're doing a big piece on this thing. And I thought, wow, maybe it is a little bit more serious. And it was my understanding that the FCC took it very seriously, and the government did all they could to find out who did it and have yet to been able to crack the case. It's one of the most bizarre crimes in TV history, one with no discernible means, motive, or opportunity.

I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Support for Criminal comes from Apple Podcasts. Each month, Apple Podcasts highlights one series worth your attention, and they call these series essentials. This month, they recommend Wondery's Ghost Story, a seven-part series that follows journalist Tristan Redman as he tries to get to the bottom of a ghostly presence in his childhood home. His investigation takes him on a journey involving homicide

detectives, ghost hunters, and even psychic mediums, and leads him to a dark secret about his own family. Check out Ghost Story, a series essential pick, completely ad-free on Apple Podcasts. Hey, it's Scott Galloway, and on our podcast, Pivot, we are bringing you a special series about the basics of artificial intelligence. We're answering all your questions. What should you use it for? What tools are right for you? And what privacy issues should you ultimately watch out for? And to help us out, we are joined by Kylie Robeson, the senior AI reporter for The Verge, to give you a primer on how to integrate AI into your life. So, tune into AI Basics, How and When to Use AI, a special series from Pivot sponsored by AWS wherever you get your podcasts. The Chicago Sun-Times published an article

with the headline, Two Channels Interrupted to the Max. It quoted an FCC spokesperson who said that whoever was involved could face up to $100,000 in fines and a year in jail, and that additional federal obscenity charges could also be brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office. It was a serious crime. Pretend that I'm five years old.

What were they actually doing in order to interrupt this signal? They were, they probably, what they did was they had a portable transmitter they would use in news gathering, had probably a two-foot diameter parabolic antenna on it, and they were just pointing it at Sears Tower, and that you could tell, if you was in the business, where the transmitters were, where the antennas were off of Sears Tower, so they could pre-aim it during the day, even though this was at night, and aim it at Sears Tower, they would probably intercept our signal. Were any of you looking at each other at TTW saying,

Well, I've always thought he was a little sketchy. Was there any internal thought that maybe it was one of you? Of course, that's the kind of thing that would jump into your head, but the penalty that would be levied should somebody actually be found out by the FCC would mean immediate dismissal from the station, certainly an impossible task to be hired within the broadcast community ever again. So the weight of the violation would have been an extreme for any of the people that worked

at either our station or at WGN. And we took an extreme amount of pride in our capabilities, in our air signal, in the station that we worked for. You know, we look back at it now and kind of laugh from time to time, but at the time, it was like we had had a home invasion. It makes you suspect everybody that you talk to.

It makes you think that it might happen again at any point in time. Al Skirkowitz says that the day after the broadcast intrusion, he had had discussions with his union, with maintenance staff, and with the director of engineering. Everyone was talking about it. He says that by 9 a.m., they had sent the first record of complaint to the Federal Communications Commission. I've investigated things from stuck radio microphones on vessels to people intentionally jamming the police and swearing at them, you know, with stolen or police radios or clock radios

that accidentally generate a signal that interferes with something else nearby. This is Jim Higgins. He was working at the FCC when the Max Hedrum incident happened. I was working on various things, inspecting television stations, special projects, studying interference to the Voice of America, and the Max Hedrum incident popped up. Jim Higgins was assigned to the Max Hedrum case because he had worked on a similar incident that happened the year before.

This hacker called himself Captain Midnight. On April 27, 1986, someone took over HBO. This is a little worse than bothering a couple of stations in Chicago. He transmitted to a satellite in geostationary orbit over the top of an HBO signal. HBO was uplinking a movie at the time, The Falcon and the Snowman, as a matter of fact, and turned on his transmitter and pointed it at HBO's satellite, and this person put up a message,

a text message. It said, Good evening, HBO, from Captain Midnight. $12.95 a month? No way. Showtime, movie channel, beware. HBO had recently announced that they would start charging people $12.95 a month for the service. Previously, if you had a satellite dish in your backyard,

you could just aim it up at HBO's signal and get it for free. A man named John McDougal decided that he was going to try and do something about it. He sold backyard dishes on the side. So he was a backyard dish dealer, and his motive obviously was, if HBO scrambled and people had to pay a monthly fee to get it, then maybe his dish business wouldn't do so well. McDougall was arrested and charged with illegally operating a satellite uplink transmitter. He accepted a plea deal and was put on probation for a year and fined $5,000.

That year, Congress passed something called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. It contained a provision that made satellite hijacking a felony. The Max Hedrum incident, which occurred just one year later, didn't involve satellite hijacking, but it did result in airwaves being taken over, and it did scare people. The FCC and FBI both investigated the Max Hedrum incident, but could find no leads on who could have done this or why. Thank you. According to Noom, losing weight has less to do with discipline and more to do with psychology. Noom is the weight loss management program that focuses on the science behind food cravings and building sustainable eating habits.

Noom wants to help you stay focused on what's important to you with their psychology and biology-based approach. Noom takes into account your unique biological factors, which also affect weight loss success. The program can also help you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have those specific cravings, and it can help you build new habits for a healthier lifestyle. And since everyone's journey is different, so are your daily lessons. They're personalized to help you reach your goal. Stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology-based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. Support for this podcast comes from Stripe.

Payment management software isn't something your customers think about that often. They see your product, they want to buy it, and then they buy it. That's about as complex as it gets. But under the hood of that process, there are a lot of really complicated things happening that have to go right in order for that sale to go through. Stripe handles the complexity of financial infrastructure, offering a seamless experience for business owners and their customers. For example, Stripe can make sure that your customers see their currency

and preferred payment method when they shop. So checking out never feels like a chore. Stripe is a payment and billing platform supporting millions of businesses around the world, including companies like Uber, BMW, and DoorDash. Stripe has helped countless startups and established companies alike reach their growth targets, make progress on their missions, and reach more customers globally. The platform offers a suite of specialized features and tools to power businesses of all sizes, like Stripe Billing, which makes it easy to handle subscription-based charges, invoicing, and all recurring revenue management needs. Learn how Stripe helps companies of all sizes make progress at Stripe.com.

That's Stripe.com to learn more. Stripe. Make progress. So the Max Hedrum incident was never solved. That's correct. You know, the FCC had some ideas of a couple of people that might have been involved, but never enough evidence to pin it on anybody. Jim Higgins and Al Skirkowitz both think that the person who did this had to have been an engineer, with the knowledge to have set something like this up. Jim Higgins thinks that they must have been proud of their work, and that it pops up every once in a while online because they want to remind people of what they pulled

off. In my view, those people who continue to bring it up and ask questions about it and post questions about it were either involved or know who was involved in the incident. Right? The criminals always, you know, they're proud of their achievement. So they don't want it to go away. They want people to remember this. Perhaps. That's my theory anyway. So maybe someday someone will make an admission, but for now we don't know. Al Skirkowitz thinks it was probably just a dumb prank. My real suspicion is this was not a vicious, intentional act. It was the act of a couple of people drinking beer in back of somebody's garage going, you know, if we could do this, I've got this piece

of equipment over there and I know this guy's got a dish over here and maybe for a case of beer we can get this all together and do something. That's the way I think it really happened. There's one place where it's still being actively investigated. Reddit. There are lots of theories. One of them, called the J&K theory, comes from a user who says that when he was 13, he was friends with some local hackers

and overheard two brothers, who he calls J&K, talking about something big. They then told him to watch WTTW later that night. Another theory says that it was most likely a person who had ties to the local Chicago broadcast community. This is also WTTW engineer Larry Oker's theory. He says it had to be an inside job. Only a TV engineer would have that kind of

know-how. And Larry says engineers can be grumpy. It makes me think that everybody in their own position and own profession has the ability to become a menace, right? I mean, in some way. Yes, right. If you're a painter, you throw the wrong color paint all over the house. If you're an engineer, you say, screw it, I'm taking over the airwaves. We all have the ability to shake things up. I don't think it was meant to be essentially bad or really a criminal act, but it was just saying, I'll show you what I can do, and that's what they did.

There's evidence to back up Larry Ocher's theory. Although the voice in the video is heavily distorted, you can hear it say the name Chuck Swirsky. Chuck Swirsky was Dan Roan's colleague at WGN. You can also hear the voice say, I just made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds. This is very likely a reference to the Chicago Tribune. Their slogan is World's Greatest Newspaper.

That's how WGN got its name. On the other hand, the person in the video also seems to be referencing cartoons and hemorrhoids and the temptations, so who can say? Whatever this person was trying to say, it can't be a coincidence that they're wearing a Max Hedrum mask. In Max Hedrum's world, a broadcast signal intrusion is punishable by death. We called Matt Frewer, the actor who played Max Hedrum. Hello, everyone. My name is Matt Frewer, the actor who played Max Hedrum. Hello, everyone. My name is Matt Frewer,

and I played a character called Max Hedrum back in the 80s. You might remember him as the next-door neighbor in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids or Dr. Leaky on Orphan Black. We wanted his take on the Max Hedrum incident. After all, it is his face. It was very surreal and flattering and in a way kind of expected. You know, that Max being the subversive character that he was and he was born of a hacker. Why not?

You know, and a hacker would use them in a subversive way. And in a lot of ways, it was very flattering because Max himself is kind of the ultimate satire because he's Mr. TV, he's on a TV, and it's about a TV network. So I guess it makes perfect sense that he would be used as a tool of something subversive, you know? When you read through all the theories on Reddit and other places online,

you sort of get the impression that if we did figure out who did this and why, the videos would lose their power. Maybe we don't want it to just be a guy with a grudge or some kids screwing around. Nothing fascinates us like an unsolved case, especially one coming from 20 minutes into the future. Criminal is created by Lauren Spohr and me. Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. Our producers are Susanna Robertson and Aaron Wade. Audio mix by Rob Byers.

Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com or on Facebook and Twitter at Criminal Show. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collection of the best podcasts around. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Radiotopia. From PRX. headlines look better in adults. Effects of Botox Cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms.

Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Don't receive Botox Cosmetic if you have a skin infection. Side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow and eyelid drooping, and eyelid swelling. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Tell your doctor about medical history, muscle or nerve conditions,

including ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome in medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. For full safety information, visit BotoxCosmetic.com or call 877-351-0300. See for yourself at BotoxCosmetic.com. Support for this podcast comes from Klaviyo. You know that feeling when your favorite brand really gets you. Deliver that feeling to your customers every time.

Klaviyo turns your customer data into real-time connections across AI-powered email, SMS, and more, making every moment count. Thank you. Learn more at klaviyo.com slash BFCM.