The Story Of The Max Headroom Incident, America’s Creepiest Unsolved TV Hack

In 1987, Chicago TV stations were overtaken by a masked man who continues to baffle authorities to this day.

5 comments

This one will probably never be solved. If the guy that did it is still alive, he unfortunately hasn't said anything.
- Given how ruthless the FCC is, the best we can hope for at this point is a deathbed confession.
- Sounds like there's not much to the mystery. They know how it was done and where it was filmed. Just don't know who did it, which at this point almost 40 years later will probably never come out. The article headline saying it continues to baffle authorities to this day seems a little disingenuous. I doubt any authorities really give a shit at this point.
"Eventually, the FCC worked out how the hacker had done it. By placing his or her own dish antenna between the transmitter tower, the hacker could have effectively interrupted the original signal. They wouldn’t even have needed expensive equipment, just good timing and positioning."

I don't understand this. Do they mean they put up a dish ON the transmitter tower and then overpowered the original transmitter? That would take seriously expensive equipment as those TV transmitter towers output a serious amount of power, a local station in my area broadcasts at 1000 kilowatts.
- Reads to me like they set up a transmitter on the local network's recieving dish - acting as their feed.