News Footage: The Max Headroom Incident

WTTW and WGN-TV joined HBO (which had a similar incident occur 19 months earlier) as instances of broadcast signal intervention. The Max Headroom incident made national headlines and was reported on the CBS Evening News the next day. WTTW received numerous phone calls from viewers who wondered what was occurring for the duration of the station being targeted.

Not long after the incident, WMAQ-TV humorously inserted clips of the hijacking into a newscast during Mark Giangreco's sports highlights. "A lot of people thought it was real – the pirate cutting into our broadcast. We got all kinds of calls about it," said Giangreco

[kylerrariden]

In the end, he was right. He did make a giant masterpiece for the world's newspaper nerds.

[ub-austin]

So you mean to tell me that nearly 30 Years later, this guy still has yet to be caught?

[carlosuribe]

Decades later and the never caught the guy lol. They most likely stopped looking after a certain time.

[PersonalJesus]

There's no better feeling than making the news and causing a fuss and being the only one who knows what really happened

[benjaminjude]

I'm just imagining years later he does it again dressed as max

[lfdbp]

I love how the news people are so smug when talking about all the fines and consequences that the "pirate" will face, and nobody know who did this, even to this day hahahahah love it

[marioandtyler]

The man who did this is a genius. Lol, that little kid found it funny, when I would've been scared straight.

[thefineboy]

You'd think there'd be a better thing to do with someone who is obviously very smart and talented than put him in jail

[timf]

I love how they act all hard like they're going to trace the guy when they still haven't found him 30 years later.

[hanshotfirst]

Wish this kind of thing would happen again.

[BaltimoreColt]

"What the person in the Max Headroom disguise may not know is how sophisticated officials can be at tracing this sort of thing."

It's only been 33 years. You can run, but you can't hide, Max!

[SagittariusQueen]

Been 30 years and this dude still hasn't been caught, you go dude! I was 6 when this happened and was watching Dr. Who with my mom that night.

[lepreachaunrise]

i bet the mastermind still watches these videos

[markjerno]

The most interesting and entertaining broadcast ever in Chicago's television history.

[srhson]

"a science fiction broadcast" and a "portion of his or her anatomy"; great copy guys!

[guthriebarrett]

0:35 Why is that guy's mouth so small

[dweebgamer-nkwc]

Wonder if he made further attempts but failed

[samtinkle]

3:35
“who *pitched* the soft drink”
Best part of the coverage.

[cnetz]

Imagine if he hijacked a broadcast 32 years later

[FarceMartyr]

Those guys seemed pretty confident they’d catch him... so much for that haha