![]() The piece was commissioned by IRCAM, ProQuartet, Milano Musica and Warsaw Autumn. ![]() The digital elaboration of the instruments is hugely inspired by the modulation technology once commonly used – and in part still used today – in TV and radio broadcasting. The 1987 Max Headroom Broadcast Incident was written for a prepared string quartet, “augmented” with the use of transducers. The transmission then blacked out for a few seconds before resuming the Doctor Who episode in progress. He then tossed the can out of sight, presented his middle finger, sang an excerpt of “I’m losing you” (a 1966 Motown hit recorded by the Temptations), hummed the theme song of Clutch Cargo (a clumsily-animated television series of the 60s). The man started to moan, scream and laugh, uttering various random phrases (the audio was distorted and crackling), including New Coke's advertising slogan "Catch the Wave" while holding a Pepsi can (Max Headroom was a Coca-Cola spokesperson at the time). an episode of the British TV-Series Doctor Who was suddenly interrupted by television static, after which an unidentified man wearing a Max Headroom mask and sunglasses appeared. The pirate broadcast, which lasted 90 endless seconds, featured an individual disguised as Max Headroom (a sci-fi computer-generated television character quite popular in the 80s, coming from dystopian near-future dominated by television and large corporations).Īround 11:15 p.m. The signal pirates, whose identities were never found, succeeded in getting their broadcast intruded onto WTTW (a local Public Broadcasting Service television station). The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion was a television signal hijacking that occurred in Chicago, Illinois, United States on the evening of November 22, 1987. Here’s an excerpt from the composer’s introduction, in which he recalls the famed television signal hijacking that occurred 30 years ago in the United States. The piece, dedicated to Fausto Romitelli, is a tribute to obsolete (or soon to-be-obsolete) technology and a dark and dreary future where 1980s cyberpunk sci-fi media rules the roost. Ī criminal investigation conducted by the Federal Communications Commission in the immediate aftermath of the intrusion could not find the people responsible, and despite many unofficial inquiries and much speculation over the ensuing decades, the culprits have yet to be positively identified.Mauro Lanza’s latest composition The 1987 Max Headroom Broadcast Incident for “augmented” string quartet will be making its world premiere on May 15 at the 'Friche la Belle de Mai Festival' in Marseille, France. ![]() At that point, the hijackers ended the pirate transmission, and normal programming resumed after a total interruption of about 90 seconds. The video concluded with the masked figure’s bare buttocks being spanked by a woman with a flyswatter while yelling "They're coming to get me!", with the woman responding "Bend over, bitch!" as the figure was crying and screaming. With nobody on duty at the affected tower, this signal takeover was more sustained, and the masked figure could be heard making reference to the real Max Headroom's advertisements for New Coke, the animated TV series Clutch Cargo, WGN sportscaster Chuck Swirsky, "Greatest World Newspaper nerds", and other seemingly unrelated topics. The second incident occurred about two hours later during PBS member station WTTW's broadcast of the Doctor Who serial Horror of Fang Rock. Max Headroom WTTW Pirating Incident - 11/22/87 (Subtitled) The above only shows the signal hacker’s most extensive video. It remains one of broadcast history’s greatest mysteries (via WGN ): Nov 22, 1987: a person wearing a Max Headroom mask achieved broadcast signal intrusion on Chicago's WGN & WTTW channels. 22 that year, and you can watch a subtitled video of big-headed Max’s shenanigans below. This interruption went on for almost 17 seconds before engineers at WGN were able to regain control of their broadcast tower. The Max Headroom Signal Intrusion happened on Nov. Unlike the later intrusion, the only sound was a loud buzz. Like the later signal intrusion, it featured a person wearing a mask swaying erratically in front of a swiveling corrugated metal panel, apparently meant to resemble Max Headroom's animated geometric background. The first incident took place during the sports segment of independent TV station WGN-TV's 9:00 p.m. The unidentified hijacker dressed to resemble Max Headroom in the pirate broadcast Big Head Max hijacked the broadcast signal of public TV station WTTW, taking over during a broadcast of Doctor Who.
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