ARCHIVE

Saturday Morning Serial: Pirate Television (Audio)

Feb 16, 2013
Produced by Tom Roe. (51:50)
In early February, 2013, a Montana television station was overtaken by some sort of pirate signal, that triggered an Emergency Alert System announcement of a zombie attack. The station released this statement: "Someone apparently hacked into the Emergency Alert System and announced on KRTV and the CW that "dead bodies are rising from their graves" in several Montana counties. This message did not originate from KRTV, and there is no emergency. Our engineers are investigating to determine what happened and if it affected other media outlets." Days later, reports of other on-air intrusions began to spread, with four reports so far. This show will also tune in the nation's first pirate television station, Lanesville TV, in Greene County, NY in the early 1970s from the Videofreex. Plus, the infamous "Max Headroom" pirate television broadcasts in Chicago in the 1980s, and Captain Midnight busting into HBO then. Plus, pirate television songs from the Talking Heads ("Television Man"), Team Dresch ("#1 Chance Pirate TV"), The Young Fresh Fellows ("TV Dream"), and more.