The Pirate Signal That Took Over Chicago: The Max Headroom Incident (Illinois)

Haunted American History · Aug 23, 2026 · 21m

On November 22, 1987, Chicago sportscaster Dan Roan was recapping a Bears game when WGN suddenly went black. Fifteen seconds later, millions of viewers were staring at a man wearing a rubber Max Headroom mask. Twenty-eight seconds later, he vanished. Then, two hours later, he did it again—this time hijacking a Doctor Who broadcast for ninety bizarre seconds of distorted jokes, obscure WGN references, and a woman with a flyswatter. The FCC and FBI investigated, but nearly forty years later, nobody knows who did it. Tonight, we investigate the Max Headroom signal intrusion: one of the strangest…