Media Disruption and the Max Headroom Incident

Before streaming and scrolling there was broadcast television—shared signals sent through the air for anyone with an antenna to catch. But when something’s that open, it’s also open to hijacking. In part one of our two-part series, we dig into one of the most bizarre and legendary cases of broadcast piracy: the Max Headroom Incident. On November 22, 1987, two Chicago stations were interrupted by a strange figure in a Max Headroom mask, delivering surreal, unsettling messages in a two-minute broadcast that has baffled and fascinated for nearly four decades. Who did it, why, and how did they pull it off? We explore the theories, the tech, and the legend that refuses to fade.

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