Ep 309: The Max Headroom Pirate TV Incident Part 2

And I turned around all of a sudden, and we don’t have Dr. Who on air; we have this Max Headroom mask, and as the content got weirder, we got increasingly more stressed out over our inability to do anything about it.
— Paul Rizzo, former WTTW Chicago Public Media Air Director
 

Description:

In Part 2 of our series on the Max Headroom Broadcast Signal Interruption, we dig deeper into the analog chaos that unfolded in 1987 Chicago — a surreal, rebellious hijacking that mocked media itself. We explore the investigation, the lingering mystery, and what it says about how we interact with technology, culture, and entertainment today. Who was behind that mask? Who wielded that fly-swatter? Let’s get into it.

 

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CREDITS:

Episode 309: The Max Headroom Pirate TV Incident Part 2. Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess. Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound. Music and Sound Design by Allen Carrescia. Tess Pfeifle, Producer and Lead Researcher. Ed Voccola, Technical Producer. Research Support from The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2025 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.