The Story Of The Max Headroom Incident, America’s Creepiest Unsolved TV Hack
The Max Headroom hack came entirely out of the blue. On Nov. 22, 1987, Chicago sportscaster Dan Roan was covering the highlights of the Bears’ recent victory over the Detroit Lions.
It was his usual spot during Channel 9’s “Nine O’Clock News” segment, one he had been doing for years, always the same. Tonight, however, it would be different.
At 9:14, Dan Roan disappeared from the screen. In fact, everything disappeared from the screen as it flickered into darkness. Then, 15 seconds later, a new figure appeared.
Dressed in a rubber mask and wearing sunglasses, the mysterious intruder looked like artificial intelligence television character Max Headroom. Even the gray background behind the figure was reminiscent of the simulated background that appeared behind Headroom.
There was hardly any sound, but the image was still frightening. The figure bobbed around in front of the spinning background as a buzzing noise played.
After 30 seconds, signal engineers at WGN, who broadcasted Channel 9, switched the frequency of the studio link to another transmitter, bringing Dan Roan back to audiences’ screens.
“Well, if you’re wondering what’s happened,” he said, clearly as confused as the viewers, “…ha-ha…so am I.”
After the brief interruption, Roan continued his previously scheduled broadcast.
Studio engineers assumed that the hijack was an inside job and immediately began searching the building for the masked intruder. However, their search was unsuccessful, as the broadcast turned out to be a pre-recording from a third party at a separate location.
And there was another one on the way.
Two hours after the first episode, the Max Headroom impersonator was back — this time on Channel 11.
At 11:15 PM, the PBS affiliate WWTW was airing a Doctor Who episode titled “The Horror of Fang Rock.”
Then, as suddenly as before, the video cut out.
Scan lines, like those at the beginning of a VHS recording, appeared, followed by the familiar masked figure. The figure bobbed in front of the rotating background as before, the same mask covering his face. However, unlike the 9:15 recording, this one had audio.
“That does it,” the figure said, its voice distorted. “He’s a fricken nerd.”
The figure then laughed. He mentioned Chuck Swirsky, a WGN pundit, claiming to be better than him.
Then he held up a can of Pepsi while reciting the Coca-Cola slogan “catch the wave.” Max Headroom was, at the time, being used as a spokesperson for Coke.
After that, the Max Headroom hack got creepier.
The figure flipped off the camera, his middle finger covered in a rubber extension. He sang “your love is fading,” lyrics to (I Know) I’m Losing You by the Temptations. He hummed tunelessly. He muttered phrases from television shows. He screamed nonsense, and then he began to moan.
After a moment, he paused to claim he had “made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds,” referencing WGN’s acronym and corporate parent, The Chicago Tribune.
He held up a glove, like the one popularized by Michael Jackson, and exclaimed, “My brother is wearing the other one.” He then pulled it on, saying, “But it’s dirty! It’s like you got bloodstains on it!”
The camera then cut to a shot of a man’s torso and partially exposed buttocks. The Max Headroom mask had been removed and was being held up to the camera. The rubber extension that had covered the figure’s finger was stuffed inside the mouth of the mask.
“They’re coming to get me!” the man screamed suddenly.
“Bend over, [expletive],” a female voice responded. The man was then spanked repeatedly with a flyswatter as he screamed.
