The persona of Max Headroom was fitting for such a hack: a character posited in a dystopian future who acted as a cynical, almost puckish, tongue-in-cheek harbinger for things to come. 'Your love is fading!' says Max, half-taunting, half-crying. Unlike the first recording played after WGN's signal was pirated, the second featured a talking Max (daresay, even a Mad Max) throwing an apparent phallus to the floor, yowling 'catch the wave!' (the tagline for the New Coke marketing campaign, which touted the actual Max Headroom as its spokesman) quickly followed by abstract, bitter nonsequitirs. If possible, this second hack took on a more sinister tone.

The facts are these: the initial WGN hack had been caused by an interruption from WGN's microwave transmission, which was normally televised to a antennae located on top of the 1,127-foot John Hancock building, then the third-tallest building in Chicago around 11:15PM, the exact same disruption would again occur, this time rifting a transmission from another station, PBS-affilliate WTW, meant for the Sears Tower skyscraper. 'By the time our people began looking into what was going on, it was over,' station spokesperson Anders Yocom told the Chicago Tribune after the incident had already received mainstream, national attention, slotting the event into a place of pop culture reverence.Īnd even though the hack was the launchpoint of what would later be considered one of the biggest - if not the biggest - television signal disruption in history, it would not be the last. The most baffling detail of all? When the TV room technicians had tried to pinpoint the new origin of the commandeered signal, it seemed to be coming from inside the station itself. 'Well, if you're wondering what's happened,' said Roan, 'so am I.'

Max headroom interruption