Got another one for all you people who are strapped for things to do with an Internet connection (my missus watches some bloody ridiculous shows on Foxtel so I utilise the time to broaden my horizons.)
Back in the bad old days of analogue television broadcasts apparently it wasn't all that hard for some to "hijack" television broadcasts simply by positioning a transmitter in an area and overpowering the stations transmitter signal to homes.
Back in 1987, on the 22nd November (some of the older members may have seen this on TV themselves via news reports?) an unidentified hacker(s) used a transmitter to break into not one, but two analogue stations and transmitted pre-recorded bizarre messages dressed in a disguise similar to that of a popular sci-fi character of the 80's named Max Headroom. To this day they've never found him. Here are some links to the two separate hijackings he perpetrated:
The first one happened at about 9pm on the WGN-9 news network in Chicago. Note that the network cut the feed, and put it through an alternate transmitter which is why it ended abruptly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM7Q1WiepoQ
The second happened on a PBS affiliated network on WTTW while in the middle of a Dr. Who screening. The audio can be heard a little better, and the uploader has been kind enough to impose subtitles where it was decipherable. As this was a part of the public broadcast network (much like channel TVS,) they had no means to intervene and as a result were held to ransom as the hijack broadcast his bizarre message : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdgAMYjYSs
There are plenty of articles dedicated to this hijacking, simply search "max headroom broadcast intrusion incident" on Google and you'll find plenty of articles about the actual event and those purporting to have been involved or known those involved.
Another was "Captain Midnight" who hijacked a HBO Pay TV channel deliberately in 1986 to protest against their cable TV charges.
You can find this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCLtkb888fU
Crazy stuff… Never knew this happened and/or was possible. They believe now with the advent of digital TV it's not possible, but I'd be curious to see if it could be done.
Back in the bad old days of analogue television broadcasts apparently it wasn't all that hard for some to "hijack" television broadcasts simply by positioning a transmitter in an area and overpowering the stations transmitter signal to homes.
Back in 1987, on the 22nd November (some of the older members may have seen this on TV themselves via news reports?) an unidentified hacker(s) used a transmitter to break into not one, but two analogue stations and transmitted pre-recorded bizarre messages dressed in a disguise similar to that of a popular sci-fi character of the 80's named Max Headroom. To this day they've never found him. Here are some links to the two separate hijackings he perpetrated:
The first one happened at about 9pm on the WGN-9 news network in Chicago. Note that the network cut the feed, and put it through an alternate transmitter which is why it ended abruptly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM7Q1WiepoQ
The second happened on a PBS affiliated network on WTTW while in the middle of a Dr. Who screening. The audio can be heard a little better, and the uploader has been kind enough to impose subtitles where it was decipherable. As this was a part of the public broadcast network (much like channel TVS,) they had no means to intervene and as a result were held to ransom as the hijack broadcast his bizarre message : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdgAMYjYSs
There are plenty of articles dedicated to this hijacking, simply search "max headroom broadcast intrusion incident" on Google and you'll find plenty of articles about the actual event and those purporting to have been involved or known those involved.
Another was "Captain Midnight" who hijacked a HBO Pay TV channel deliberately in 1986 to protest against their cable TV charges.
You can find this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCLtkb888fU
Crazy stuff… Never knew this happened and/or was possible. They believe now with the advent of digital TV it's not possible, but I'd be curious to see if it could be done.
