Max Headroom Broadcast Intrusion

Record summary

In November 1987, an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask interrupted two Chicago television broadcasts with bizarre speech, music, and gestures. The Federal Communications Commission and FBI investigated, but the perpetrator was not publicly identified. The incident became a modern media legend through recordings, speculation, online archives, and repeated attempts to decode its references. It is useful for studying technological folklore, anonymous performance, and the transformation of an unsolved crime into a cultural mystery. The broadcast itself is documented; motives remain unknown.