#Max headroom incident pbs movie#
#Max headroom incident pbs generator#
#Max headroom incident pbs license#
#Max headroom incident pbs tv#

during an episode of the Doctor Who serial, ' Horror of Fang Rock', and lasted almost 90 seconds. This second interception occurred at about 11:00 p.m. Next came PBS affiliate WTTW, where the man was seen and heard uttering garbled remarks before dropping his pants, partially exposing his buttocks, and was then spanked with a flyswatter by a woman wearing a French maid costume before normal programming resumed. The intrusion occurred during the sports report on its 9:00 p.m. WGN-TV, owned by Tribune Broadcasting, was hijacked first. On the night of November 22, 1987, an unidentified man wearing a Max Headroom mask appeared on the signals of two television stations in Chicago, Illinois. The message, placed over SMPTE color bars, broadcast by MacDougall read: He stated that he did it because he was frustrated with HBO's service rates and that it was hurting his business selling satellite dishes (hence his second job at the teleport).

#Max headroom incident pbs tv#

MacDougall was able to perform the intrusion while working a second job as a master control operator at a satellite teleport in Florida, where he worked to make ends meet due to declining income from his satellite TV equipment business. § 1367 which made satellite jamming a felony.

#Max headroom incident pbs license#

Ambiguity about whether the 47 USC 301 charge was applicable since the transmitter had a license resulted in the passage of 18 U.S.C. MacDougall pled guilty and was fined $5,000 and served a year of probation. He was charged with transmitting without a radio license in violation of 47 U.S.C.

#Max headroom incident pbs generator#

MacDougall's guilt was confirmed by an FCC investigation that showed he was alone at Central Florida Teleport at the time of the incident and a recording of the jamming video showed that the text was created by a character generator at that location.

The man filing the report said that he overheard MacDougall bragging about the incident. Authorities were tipped off by a man from Wisconsin in a phone booth at a rest area of Interstate Highway 75 in Gainesville, Florida.

#Max headroom incident pbs movie#

The man, who during the interruption also threatened to hijack the signals of Showtime and The Movie Channel, was later caught and identified as John R. The intrusion lasted between 4 and 5 minutes and was seen by viewers along the East Coast. The interruption occurred during a presentation of The Falcon and the Snowman. Eastern Time on April 27, 1986, HBO (Home Box Office) had its satellite signal feed from its operations center on Long Island in Hauppauge, New York interrupted by a man calling himself 'Captain Midnight'.

MacDougall's message as seen by HBO viewers, behind the SMPTE color bars.Īt 12:32 a.m. Īs a cable television operator connects itself in the signal path between individual stations and the system's subscribers, broadcasters have fallen victim to signal tampering on cable systems on multiple occasions. Other methods that have been used in North America to intrude on legal broadcasts include breaking into the transmitter area and splicing audio directly into the feed. All that is required is an FM transmitter that can overpower the same frequency as the station being its rebroadcast. Hijacking incidents have involved local TV and radio stations as well as cable and national networks.Īlthough television, cable, and satellite broadcast signal intrusions tend to receive more media coverage, radio station intrusions are more frequent, as many simply rebroadcast a signal received from another radio station. For unauthorized broadcasting in general, see Pirate broadcasting.Ī broadcast signal intrusion is the hijacking of broadcast signals of radio, television stations, cable television broadcast feeds or satellite signals without permission or license. The scream becomes a distorted drone and then cuts out with the video.'Broadcast signal piracy' redirects here. 'They're coming to get me! Come get me bi-!' He then gets spanked by the woman. it's dirty!' Takes off the glove and throws it aside.įrom the new angle. 'Oh, I just made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds' (The call sign of station WGN was an acronym for 'World's Greatest Newspaper,' a slogan borrowed from the early days of the Chicago Tribune.) Puts on a glove. Continues humming the Clutch Cargo theme song. 'Your love is fading!' he shouts (possibly a reference to The Temptations song '(I Know) I'm Losing You') Hums the theme to the old TV cartoon Clutch Cargo. 'Yeah!' Holding a Pepsi can, he yells the New Coke slogan 'Catch the wave!'. I think I'm better than Chuck Swirsky, frickin Liberal! (referring to the longtime Chicago sportscaster).