The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 23: The Max Headroom Incident. UNSOLVED: The Creepiest TV Hack in History

Episode Date: June 26, 2022

THE MAX HEADROOM INCIDENT.  November 22nd, 1987 was a pretty normal evening for television viewers in Chicago. That night, like every night, Dan Roan was covering sports on WGN-TV, Channel 9.  Then suddenly, the signal was disrupted and screens across the city cut to black.   Engineers at WGN-TV thought their transmitters were failing.    They weren't. A few seconds later, something crazy happened.   WGN's broadcast signal had been hijacked in what is now known as "The Max Headroom Incident".    WGN-TV was able to act quickly and get their signal back. But, Two hours later, it would happen again to another TV station and there was nothing they could do to stop it.   What happens next remains one of the most bizarre unsolved crimes in television history.   Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files. And Hecklefish.

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to sit here and talk about Spotify. Look, this would go a lot faster if you would just let me get through it without... November 22nd, 1987 was a pretty normal evening for television viewers in Chicago. That night, like every night, Dan Roan was covering sports on WGN-TV Channel 9. Then suddenly, the signal was disrupted and screens across the city cut to black. Engineers at WGN-TV thought their transmitters were failing. They weren't. A few seconds later, this happened.

What the f***? WGN's broadcast signal had been hijacked in what is now known as the Max Hedrum incident. WGN-TV was able to act quickly and get their signal back, but two hours later it would happen again to another TV station and there was nothing they could do to stop it. So what happens next remains one of the most bizarre unsolved crimes in television history. Let's find out why. Because you are going to see it as well. Yes, it. Yes, it. Yes. Namely, the Max Sedrum story. At 9.14 p.m., Dan Roan disappeared from WGN-TV. In fact, everything disappeared. Then, 15 seconds later, something crazy happened.

Wearing a rubber mask and sunglasses, the hacker looked like artificial intelligence television character Max Hedrum. The new Max didn't say anything, but that doesn't make him any less frightening. After about 30 seconds of horror, technicians at WGN were able to switch their uplink frequency and bring Dan Rohn back on the air. And he did a nice job of keeping his composure, but he clearly was unsettled. Well, if you're wondering what's happened, so am I. Actually, the computer that we have running our news from time to time took off and went wild. The engineers figured that this was an inside job conducted by an employee, so they started tearing apart the studio looking for the perpetrator. They didn't find anyone.

Turns out the pirate broadcast was pre-recorded and the signal was hacked by a third party. Somehow this third party was able to intercept the WGN uplink and push their own signal through WGN TV's antenna on top of the John Hancock building. But the TV pirates weren't finished yet. Two hours later, on PBS Channel 11, in the middle of a Doctor Who episode, Max was back. And this time, he had lots to say. That is the only way to learn.

I'll get you a hot drink, miss. I've taken dry clothing. He's a pretty nerd. He checks the worst. He's a pretty nerd. Jesus. I'm a nerd. I've been out there in checks and worsties, whippin' the floor. Jesus. Oh, dear.

Get out of the way. Your love is fading now I still see the end Oh, this is the X. Oh, my files! Oh, I just made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds. My brother is wearing the other one. But it's dirty! That's why you can't put my product on!

Ow! You're going to lose something! Get me! No, that's a witch! Ow! That's a witch! Ow! As long as I can tell a massive electric shock, he died instantly. No, really. What the actual f***? So for this second performance, there were no engineers on duty.

They had gone home for the day. So the transmission played all the way through. And when it was over, the signal was returned to channel 11. And barely an hour later, the FCC and the FBI began an investigation that would turn the entire television industry upside down. The hunt for Max Hedgerum was on. Oh, look at that. You cannot beat that for a first prize. Well, you can't, but I can. Now to most TV viewers in 1987, the face of Max Hedrum was instantly recognizable. He was called the world's first computer-generated TV host. Max Hedrum originally appeared in the cyberpunk TV movie Max Hedrum 20 Minutes Into

the Future, which was broadcast in 1985. In fact, he had a show on the air at the time. It ran on Channel 4 in the UK and on ABC in the US from 1987 to 1988. The show was eventually cancelled when it was beaten in the ratings by Miami Vice. Oh, it's tough to compete with Crockett and Tubbs. It is. A late night talk show on Cinemax and a few TV specials had made Max Headroom a cult sensation, and eventually he would become an 80s icon. The Max Headroom story takes place in a dystopian future.

And in this future, television networks rule the world. Even the government functions as a puppet of the network executives, whose job is mainly to pass laws to keep people watching, like removing off switches from TVs. And TV technology had advanced to the point that viewers' physical movements and thoughts could be monitored through their television sets. I bet Facebook and Google love this future. The only real check on the power of the networks is Edison Carter,

an investigative journalist who exposes their unethical practices. Now, the networks don't like this, but Carter gets big ratings, so they have to keep him around. So one day he's injured in a motorcycle accident, and the last thing he sees before he blacks out is a sign that says Max Headroom, 2.3 meters. Oh! So desperate to maintain ratings with its star reporter,

the network hires a hacker to upload Carter's mind into an AI, and Max Headroom was born. And despite what most people think, Max was not really computerized. He was played by Matt Frewer, who wore makeup and prosthetics and sat in front of a blue screen. Max Headroom was designed to be a parody of real-life TV newscasters, where the line between news and entertainment was getting more and more blurry. That line is gone now. It definitely is. Max Headroom was conceived as a cyberpunk on mainstream TV, a voice to rail against the establishment and corporate conglomerates. And the world he described in 1987 turned out to be pretty close to what we're living

now. Have you any idea how successful censorship is on TV? Don't know the answer. Successful, isn't it? OK, let's break down the video and how the hacker managed to pull this off in the first place. Max starts with he's a frickin nerd. The people have speculated that the beginning of the video was cut off,

so we're not really sure what he means. But we do know how he created this voice. By running the audio feed through an analog ring modulator, you can create this effect. And it might not have been an accident that Max hijacked a Doctor Who episode. Doctor Who fans are very familiar with the evil Daleks, famous for saying, And to create the Daleks' voice, the audio was run through a ring modulator. Now, today, this is completely done with software, but in 1987, this would have been done with an analog effects pedal

that could have been purchased from any music shop. So maybe Max was a Doctor Who fan. Max is referring to the Chicago Bulls announcer, who was then WGN Radio's top sportscaster. The background behind him was a cheap piece of corrugated metal that you can get at any hardware store. It was mounted on some kind of spindle that was rotated by someone off camera. Now holding what looks to be a marital aid, Max yells the New Coke slogan, Catch the Wave. Max Hedrum was the spokesperson for a huge Coca-Cola campaign and made this catchphrase instantly famous. More people are as we

Cokeologists say, catching the wave. Catch it if you can, can. Catch the wave. Coke. Um, excuse me. Yeah. So the guy who was against huge corporations had a brand deal with a huge corporation. Ah, I see the hypocrisy in that. Anyway, Max then hums the theme to the 1960s cartoon Clutch Cargo and says, I still see the X. This is a direct reference to Clutch Cargo's final episode. I want to take a closer look at that thing. Break out the spacesuits, better? Right, Clutch. You know, I don't like the human mouth on those characters.

Oh, you don't like that, huh? Not one bit. It creeps me out. I know how you feel. By the way, that type of animation is called Synchrovox, and it was used in the 50s and 60s as a way to keep animation costs down. It was also used frequently on Conan in the 90s and early 2000s, in case it looks familiar. Just want to wish you and all your loved ones a very happy year five.

Okay, well, Donald Trump, everybody. Yeah, I don't care for that. Next, Max says, I just made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds. Now, this is another dig at Chicago's television establishment. The call sign of the station, WGN, was an abbreviation for World's Greatest Newspaper, a slogan taken from the Chicago Tribune, and the Tribune owned the TV station. Now, let's see how he did it.

This one for the video pirates who managed to scramble Chicago airwaves. The pirates interrupted WGN and WTTW programming with a show of their own. Our Mike Kirsch has more. Someone wants to get into your house, they can find a way to do that. And I guess likewise, if someone wants to interfere with your signal, they can find a way to do that. While some viewers were entertained by this prank, the stations and the government were not amused. Officials from the FCC pledged to track down the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Agents from the FBI's Chicago field office also joined the investigation. Like to inform anybody involved in this kind of thing that there's a maximum penalty of $100,000

one year in jail or both. There was a growing fear among law enforcement, the military and communications experts that our signals were vulnerable. Imagine the chaos you can cause if you tried something like this with military transmissions. At the time of the Max Headroom hack, broadcast signal intrusions were considered rare, limited to small, low-power stations. And special knowledge was required, and equipment that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more were needed. A city like Chicago didn't think they were vulnerable. Oops!

To hijack a television or radio station signal, you don't even have to be in the studio. How many stations work is the signal is sent on low power from the studio to a big antenna. This is called the studio transmitter link or STL. Then the big antenna takes the STL, amplifies it and broadcasts it. Max knew this and was able to position a piece of equipment in between the studio and the tower. Then all he had to do was transmit to the tower on the correct frequency and push out a signal that had more power than the studio's. Apparently somebody with some microwave equipment was able to interfere with our signal going to the Hancock transmitter. Now this is not just anybody off the street. He has to have an electronic expertise of some level, right? Yes, he does. It takes very sophisticated equipment to do this at

a significant power level. Now obviously this takes a lot of knowledge about telecommunications, but if you have good line of sight to the tower, it can be done with relatively cheap equipment. Now before you get the idea that you want to try this, remember A, it's illegal, and B, signals are now encrypted, so that system really wouldn't work. Now, Max probably didn't come up with this idea himself. Just one year earlier, HBO endured an embarrassing hack. This intrusion was perpetrated by the now infamous Captain Midnight. There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission.

April 27th, 1986. That night, HBO broadcast The Falcon and the Snowman. Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Snowman. I don't think you're right about that. I am. Anyway, at around 32 minutes past midnight, the screen flickered into color bars with a message superimposed on top. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed.

You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms.

Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen discover best-selling adventure stories on audible you sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. I love this guy!

Lasting about four and a half minutes, the message from Captain Midnight was America's first known broadcast signal intrusion. HBO execs didn't publicly discuss the incident, which was a protest of the recently announced price hike. Within a few days, FCC investigators had found the hacker. Captain Midnight was a satellite technician named John McDougall, who worked for a satellite uplink company in Ocala, Florida. At the end of his shift, McDougall flipped the dish in the direction of HBO's satellite and broadcast his message, overpowering the network's signal.

He explained to investigators that he was frustrated at the network's rising fees, which hurt his other business, selling satellite TV equipment. After pleading guilty to charges of transmitting without a license, a violation of federal law, McDougal paid a $5,000 fine. Now, to this day, McDougal doesn't regret the incident. He said HBO was deliberately gouging satellite customers in order to get them to switch to cable. But turns out he was 100 percent right. That's exactly what HBO is doing. And it worked just because something's not legal doesn't mean it's not right.

I couldn't agree more. It generated hundreds of calls, really kind of expressing sympathy over the fact that our signal would be interfered with in this way and that it would inconvenience so many thousands of our viewers. The incidents are now under investigation by the FCC and the FBI. But the odds, I'd say, if a guy continues to involve himself, either sporadically or continuously, it's very great that we will determine who it is.

The investigation into the Max Hedrum incident went on for a while, but eventually the trail went cold. The FCC and FBI weren't prepared for this type of investigation and the agencies weren't cooperating with each other. Ever since 1987, people have speculated about who Max was. From local dial-up BBSs to Reddit,

there are tons of theories. Eventually each theory is debunked. And to this day, nobody has come forward. Eventually, each theory is debunked. And to this day, nobody has come forward. Now, most people believe that it was an employee with an axe to grind against WGN, but nobody really knows for sure. There was no message. There was no motive. And decades later, no perpetrator. It seems like it was done purely for the curiosity and the glory of simply doing it. That's good enough for me. Thanks for hanging out with us today.

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