Radio Broadcasts That Caused Widespread Public Panic

This one wasn’t a hoax but a real crime that sent a different kind of chill across the country. In 1986, a satellite engineer named John MacDougall, calling himself Captain Midnight, hijacked broadcast signals. He overrode HBO’s signal with a glowing test pattern and a typed message protesting their subscription fees. The intrusion generated national security fears about how vulnerable our airwaves were. In response, Congress passed new laws making broadcast signal intrusion a federal felony.