Creative History

  First the screen flickered and then it went completely black. At 9:14 pm on November 22, 1987, during the sports segment of the WGN nine o’clock newscast, the largest broadcast network in the Chicago metropolitan area, went completely off the air.   Local sportscaster Dan Roan, who had at that moment been in the middle of narrating highlights from that day’s game between the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions disappeared from the screen. There was a buzzing sound over the airwaves and then after nearly half a minute of complete darkness an almost comically grotesque head appeared on screen. The WGN newscast was interrupted by a man wearing a rubber mask and oversized sunglasses whose head bobbed around erratically in front of a gray metallic looking background. WGN, the largest broadcast network at the time in Chicago, had its airwaves interrupted and hijacked by someone attempting to impersonate artificial intelligence character, and pop culture icon, Max Headroom. Max He...