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Thomas Haynie, an employee of the Christian Broadcasting Network, was convicted of satellite piracy in connection with the incident. Repent, the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.' (from the Bible verses Exodus 20:8 and Matthew 4:17). The message read, 'Thus sayeth the Lord thy God: Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

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The Playboy Channel religious message Ī broadcast of the movie 'Three Daughters' on the Playboy Channel was disrupted with a text-only religious message on Sunday, September 6, 1987. The HBO incident was also mentioned in the same news report. This incident got the attention of the CBS Evening News the next day and was talked about nationwide. None of the individuals responsible for the intrusion have been identified. during an episode of the Doctor Who serial, ' Horror of Fang Rock', and lasted almost 90 seconds. This second interception occurred at about 11:00 p.m. Next came PBS affiliate WTTW, where the man was seen and heard uttering garbled remarks before dropping his pants, partially exposing his buttocks, and was then spanked with a flyswatter by a woman wearing a French maid costume before normal programming resumed. The intrusion occurred during the sports report on its 9:00 p.m. WGN-TV, owned by Tribune Broadcasting, was hijacked first. On the night of November 22, 1987, an unidentified man wearing a Max Headroom mask appeared on the signals of two television stations in Chicago, Illinois. The message, placed over SMPTE color bars, broadcast by MacDougall read: He stated that he did it because he was frustrated with HBO's service rates and that it was hurting his business selling satellite dishes (hence his second job at the teleport).

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MacDougall was able to perform the intrusion while working a second job as a master control operator at a satellite teleport in Florida, where he worked to make ends meet due to declining income from his satellite TV equipment business. § 1367 which made satellite jamming a felony.

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Ambiguity about whether the 47 USC 301 charge was applicable since the transmitter had a license resulted in the passage of 18 U.S.C. MacDougall pled guilty and was fined $5,000 and served a year of probation. He was charged with transmitting without a radio license in violation of 47 U.S.C.

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MacDougall's guilt was confirmed by an FCC investigation that showed he was alone at Central Florida Teleport at the time of the incident and a recording of the jamming video showed that the text was created by a character generator at that location. The man filing the report said that he overheard MacDougall bragging about the incident. Authorities were tipped off by a man from Wisconsin in a phone booth at a rest area of Interstate Highway 75 in Gainesville, Florida. The man, who during the interruption also threatened to hijack the signals of Showtime and The Movie Channel, was later caught and identified as John R. The intrusion lasted between 4 and 5 minutes and was seen by viewers along the East Coast. The interruption occurred during a presentation of The Falcon and the Snowman. Eastern Time on April 27, 1986, HBO (Home Box Office) had its satellite signal feed from its operations center on Long Island in Hauppauge, New York interrupted by a man calling himself 'Captain Midnight'. MacDougall's message as seen by HBO viewers, behind the SMPTE color bars.Īt 12:32 a.m.

Īs a cable television operator connects itself in the signal path between individual stations and the system's subscribers, broadcasters have fallen victim to signal tampering on cable systems on multiple occasions. Other methods that have been used in North America to intrude on legal broadcasts include breaking into the transmitter area and splicing audio directly into the feed. All that is required is an FM transmitter that can overpower the same frequency as the station being its rebroadcast. Hijacking incidents have involved local TV and radio stations as well as cable and national networks.Īlthough television, cable, and satellite broadcast signal intrusions tend to receive more media coverage, radio station intrusions are more frequent, as many simply rebroadcast a signal received from another radio station. For unauthorized broadcasting in general, see Pirate broadcasting.Ī broadcast signal intrusion is the hijacking of broadcast signals of radio, television stations, cable television broadcast feeds or satellite signals without permission or license. 'Broadcast signal piracy' redirects here.