The Why Files

The Max Headroom Incident

November 22nd, 1987 was a pretty normal evening for television viewers in Chicago. That night, like every night, Dan Roan was covering sports on WGN-TV, Channel 9. Then suddenly, the signal was disrupted and screens across the city cut to black. Engineers at WGN-TV thought their transmitters were failing. They weren't. A few seconds later, something crazy happened. WGN's broadcast signal had been hijacked in what is now known as "The Max Headroom Incident"