Max Headroom WTTW Pirating Incident - 11/22/87 (Subtitled)
jonrev0 HN recommenders · 2015–2017
9.3M views · other · evergreen · Uploaded 2007-03-21
A subtitled edit of the 1987 Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion, in which hijackers interrupted Chicago stations WGN and WTTW.
Linked as the famous example of a hijacked TV broadcast in threads about hacking and signal intrusion.
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3 comments from Hacker News
In case you've never seen it, and to save some the YouTube search, here's the crazy Max Headroom hack video with subtitles: [VIDEO]
Hijacking live broadcasts seems to be one of the ultimate hacker accomplishments. There is something about it that is far more disconcerting than just defacing a webpage. Seems like it would feel far more invasive, popping on your living room tv. Would love to know how much someone like the BBC spend on security, must be huge. The most famous TV hack, Max Headroom [1] (NSFW), from what I recall involved overriding the terrestrial signal, presumably with very powerful broadcasting hardware. BBC are digital now, so I am surprised they haven't had a successful incident yet. [1] [VIDEO]
Growing up, the audio tone for that signal was etched into my brain over the course of numerous Saturday mornings, when I woke up early enough to hear the tests. This was before cable was normal. Sometimes it felt like the dial-tone-like noise drilled into your ears for a solid 90 seconds. Example: [LINK] The new sound is even worse (and seemingly longer), and I imagine it's signal (which sounds more like fax machine squelches than an alert noise) has been crafted to prevent incidents like you describe. Example: [LINK] Also, to prevent deliberate piracy, which was something of an urban legend, but with real, known examples, like the Chicago Max Headroom instance: [VIDEO] It's interesting, because I had always thought the noises were intended to capture the interest of viewers, since it sounds like something of an alarm. It never occurred to me that it might be a system-level control signal. Which makes much more sense now, since the tests were called out as tests, and not drills to prompt viewer activity. It's funny, because after decades and decades of listening to the test drills, on 9/11 I had expected to hear it cutting in, but it was largely absent and unused. The only time I've ever heard it for real, was during weather-related situations like hurricanes.