
Millions of people in the Chicago area were forced to watch a major broadcast hijacking exactly 34 years ago. On the evening of November 22, 1987, a masked person took over transmission twice, uttering seemingly meaningless jokes and trivia for a total of two minutes.
The incident, dubbed “Max Headroom signal jacking” because of the perpetrators’ mask choice, sparked a lot of speculation, but no answers. Authorities were unable to apprehend the culprits despite a lengthy investigation.
However, the event has been immortalized due to the lack of clarity, making it a must-know for any fan of hacker culture and subversive art.
The first interruption
The Max Headroom hack appears to be a scene from a modern hacker film like Mr. Robot or even a techy horror film. The hack becomes stranger the more you read about it.
The first intrusion lasted about 25 seconds and happened during the sports segment of Chicago’s WGN-TV newscast. The broadcast was initially interrupted by a ten-second black screen, followed by a creepy-looking masked person in front of a corrugated metal background.
A screeching digital noise accompanied the interruption, making it unclear whether the character had anything to say.
WGN-engineers TV’s were perplexed, so they turned off the intrusion by changing the signal frequency between the broadcast studio and the station.
Once the stations’ engineers were able to get the regular broadcast back on the air, sports anchor Dan Roan commented, “Well, if you’re wondering what’s happened, so am I.”
Who is Max Headroom?
The creepy aesthetics were not chosen at random. The perpetrator was dressed as Max Headroom, a fictional British TV character.
A fictional ‘artificial intelligence’ character appeared in the first season of the show. In reality, Canadian-American actor Matt Frewer wore prosthetic makeup to create the character’s computer-generated appearance.
In the TV show, Max Headroom was a journalist who was assassinated over digging dirt on the corporation that owned the TV station he worked at. Headroom’s hacker friend preserved his brain and uploaded it to the network, effectively turning him into a digital entity.
The ghost of Headroom used to appear in broadcasts, like in a modern horror story, sharing snarky, sometimes off-beat jokes with a dash of social commentary.
‘Giant masterpiece’
Viewers only heard what the people behind the Max Headroom mask had to say after a second attempt at hijacking the TV signal. Hackers broke into the signal of another Chicago-based station, WTTW, around 11:20 p.m. the same night.
The perpetrators began an episode of Doctor Who by saying, “He’s a fricking nerd,” followed by a digitalized laughter reminiscent of the original Max Headroom show.
The 90-second video was disorganized, with the perpetrator gliding over seemingly random subjects. WGN sportscaster Chuck Swirsky was called a “frickin’ liberal,” and a Pepsi can was displayed while a Coca-Cola slogan was called.
Swirsky later expressed concern for his safety, claiming that he was singled out in the transmission for no apparent reason.

The hijacker then began humming the Temptations’ 1966 song “Your love is fading.” However, the twitchy, strange-sounding character’s somewhat juvenile presentation makes it difficult not to see a movie villain in him.
In the middle of the video, the hacker proudly stated, “I just made a giant masterpiece for the Greatest World Newspaper nerds.” The first station to be hacked that day was WGN-TV, which stands for “World’s Greatest Newspaper.”
The interruption was followed by a side view of exposed buttocks being spanked by a female character with a fly swatter. The broadcast returned to normal a few seconds later, leaving many people puzzled by the ordeal.
The second hijacking came to an end when the hackers terminated the transmission on their own. WTTW did not have engineers on the scene to deal with the signal disruption.
Targeted attack
According to television engineers, whoever was behind the attack needed access to a costly transmitter because hijacking the broadcast required extremely high-powered equipment.
It’s thought that the intrusion was carried out by using a transmitter to overturn the signal sent by TV studios to transmitters that amplified the signal to reach Chicago audiences. Between the studio and the transmitter, the perpetrators most likely used a high-rise apartment or a roof.
“You need a lot of power to do that, and the interfering signal has to be quite strong,” WGN director of engineering Robert Strutzel told the Chicago Tribune the day after the incident.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched an investigation into the attack. It never discovered who was behind it, though. No one took responsibility for the hijacking, despite the fact that the case’s five-year statute of limitations had expired in 1992, meaning the perpetrators would face no charges even if they came forward.
The attack was suspected to be carried out by students, disgruntled employees, and radio enthusiasts. Only those involved in the attack, 34 years later, are certain who carried it out. The attack is one of the most well-known hacking attempts due to the cryptic broadcast, bizarre broadcast, and lack of accountability.
The Max Headroom hack occurred less than a year after a satellite dish salesman, John R. MacDoughall, interrupted HBO’s transmission with a written message criticizing the company for preventing non-subscribers from receiving the stations’ transmission. Despite the fact that millions of people saw the message, authorities only fined MacDougall $5,000.

The Amazing Truth About The German U-Boat That Was Sunk By A Toilet
During WWII, a German captain and an engineer flushed the submarine's high-tech toilet incorrectly, causing the vessel to rapidly fill with water. British planes patrolling the sea attacked them as the submarine was brought to the surface. While many members of the crew were killed in the attack, the captain escaped!

The 1814 London beer flood
In 1814, there was a beer flood in London when a tank containing more than 300,000 gallons ruptured in which 8 people drowned.

Nearest Green, America's first known Black master distiller
Nathan "Nearest" Green was an African-American head stiller who is now more frequently referred to as a master distiller. He was renowned for imparting his distilling knowledge to Jack Daniel, the creator of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distiller, after Jack Daniel was freed from slavery following the American Civil War.

Tunnels Dug by ancient giant sloths, A South American Megafauna
For years, scientists didn’t know what caused mysterious cave networks in South America. In 2010, they learned that the caves were actually tunnels dug by ancient giant sloths

Moondyne Joe: The story of Australia's most notorious prison escapee
A man named Joseph Bolitho Johns (A.K.A Moondyne Joe) broke out of Australian prisons so many times that the police were compelled to build a special cell just for him. He escaped from that as well.

Irena Sendler: woman who rescued Jews during holocaust
Irene Sendler was the Zegota resistance group's head of the children's department. She risked her life to smuggle children out of the Warsaw ghetto, place them with Polish families or orphanages, give each child a new identity, and keep records so that they could be returned to their families. In 1943, the Gestapo arrested and sentenced her to death, but she was rescued by Zegota.

Remembering the 1945 Empire State Building Disaster: When a Plane Met Skyscraper
An airplane crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. Among other damage, plane parts severed the cables of an elevator and the woman inside fell over 70 stories. She lived and holds the world record for the longest survived elevator fall.

10 world’s most destructive and dangerous volcanic eruptions in history
Volcanic eruptions can devastate cities, change the world's atmosphere, and devastate economic systems. They can create molten lava rivers, mudslides, suffocating ash, and poisonous gases that cause chaos around the world for years. A volcanic explosion's effects can be massive, from its size to its death toll to its economic cost. Here is ten world’s most destructive and dangerous volcanic eruptions in history.

How Sleep Deprivation Was Once Used as Torture
Sleep deprivation, long before modern interrogation techniques, was considered a “clean” and effective form of torture—leaving no physical scars, yet breaking minds with haunting silence. Victims endured days and nights without rest, leading to vivid hallucinations, disorientation, and psychological torment. This article traces the dark history of sleep deprivation as a weapon, examines the science behind its effects on the brain, and shines a light on the painful balance between human endurance and cruelty in the annals of coercion.

Iranian inmate dies from happiness after finding out he will not be executed
An Iranian man who was convicted of murder reportedly died from happiness after learning that his death sentence was being commuted.

Jack the Baboon operated a railroad, earned a living, and never made a mistake
A baboon worked as a signalman for the railroad in the late 1800s. He never made a mistake and worked for the railroad until the day he died.

How did Howard Florey discover penicillin
Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming, but he never attempted to turn it into an antibiotic. It wasn't until ten years later that Howard Florey discovered Fleming's obscure paper and understood the mold's potential. Up to 200 million lives may have been saved as a result of Florey's work.

Robert Odlum, the first person to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge
The first person to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge was a professional high diver who "wanted to demonstrate that people did not die simply by falling through the air, thus encouraging people to be willing to jump from a burning building into a net." He proved himself correct by safely falling 135 feet through the air and dying only when he hit the water.

Nicholas Winton ‘British Schindler’: Man who rescued 669 Czech children from Nazis
A man named Nicholas Winton saved 669 kids during WWII and lived almost all his life without letting people know.

What is the story behind Wrigley chewing gum?
Wrigley's was originally a soap company that gifted baking powder with their soap. The baking powder became more popular than the soap so they switched to selling baking powder with chewing gum as a gift. The gum became more popular than the baking powder so the company switched to selling gum.

A Brief History of the PlayStation Gaming Console
Sony's PlayStation was never meant to be an actual product. Instead, it was intended to be a CD-ROM console that would support Nintendo games. However, when Nintendo backed out of the deal at the last minute, Sony went ahead and launched what soon became one of the most successful gaming consoles of all time.

The touching story of David Vetter (bubble boy), the 'boy who lived in a bubble
David Vetter lived his whole 12 years in sterile “bubble”. He was “outside” for 20 second after being removed from his mother’s womb. He never touched any human.

Albert Einstein’s brain after it was stolen from his body
Albert Einstein's brain was taken by the opportunistic pathologist who performed his autopsy hours after he died and kept in two jars for 30 years. The stolen brain of Albert Einstein was preserved in a cookie jar for 30 years until being discovered by a journalist.

Henry Ford, The man popularizing the concept of the weekend off
Henry Ford was the first Industrial Giant to give his employees both Saturday and Sunday off in the hope of encouraging more leisurely use of automobiles and thus popularizing the concept of the "weekend."

How a Total Lunar Eclipse Saved Christopher Columbus in 1504
In 1504, Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamaica with natives who refused to give him food. But he knew the date and time of an upcoming lunar eclipse. So he told the natives that his gods were angry at their treatment of him, and would provide a clear sign. Once the eclipse started, the natives raced to give him food and begged for mercy.

15 interesting facts about Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled Britain for 70 years, has away at the age of 96. She was the country's longest-reigning monarch. Here are some little-known facts about her.

Titanoboa cerrejonensis, fossils of the world’s largest species of snake
In 2009 in a coal mine of Columbia, scientists discovered fossils of the world’s largest species of snake. The species is called “Titanoboa cerrejonensis,“and it is from around 60 million years ago. It would have had measured about 48 feet long and weighed about 2,500 pounds

Underground Railroad to Mexico freed thousands of slaves in 1829
Slavery was abolished in Mexico in 1829. Slaves were escaping to Mexico, and slaveholders in the US were aware of this. The US attempted to get Mexico to sign a fugitive slave treaty, which would have required Mexico to send back escaped slaves to the US. But, Mexico refused, arguing that slaves were free as soon as they set foot on Mexican soil.

Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident: Enemy became friends
During WWII, a German pilot spotted an American pilot’s crippled plane in the sky. Tailing it, he noticed that gunner was dead, crew injured, and they posed no threat. Instead of destroying the plane, he led it to safety. 40 years later, the two pilots reunited.

The mysterious secret of Dr James Barry
Before women were allowed to enroll in medical school, Margaret Ann Bulkley studied medicine and assumed the identity of Dr. James Barry for 56 years while dressing as a man. After 46 years of service as an army doctor officer, her secret was not made public until after her death in 1865.