SOUTHERN TELEVISION BROADCAST INTRUSION

DATE:

26 November, 1977

ASSOCIATED LOCATION:

Southern England

OVERVIEW:

At 5:10 PM local time, the Southern Television transmission station in Hannington, Hampshire was hijacked via a smaller nearby pirate transmission device. Using voice modulation software, the hijackers relayed a message claiming to be from a figure named "Vrillon" of an "Asteron Space Command". The message's contents consisted of an incredibly long winded plea for peace among humanity, followed by a threat of violence should the world not comply. The intrusion lasted roughly 5 minutes, with regularly scheduled footage from the news and a Merrie Melodies cartoon playing in the background.

Due to the rather bombastic nature of the incident, it was very quickly dismissed as a hoax. This was cemented after the intrusion's source was discovered (the aforementioned tower in Hannington). A few sources, largely independent paranormal magazines and small regional newspapers, proposed that it really was a message from an extraterrestrial, but these sources were in the minority.

Due to the faulty nature of observational testimony when reporting on the incident, many newspapers misreported the name of the supposed alien contacter. Many of these reports were incredibly sensationalist, creating doubt in the public mind far beyond the scope of what the amateurish broadcast itself created.

Overall, this incident holds relatively little significance in the scope of supposed alien encounters. Additionally, it is far from the most notable television broadcast intrusion. It isn't as mysterious as the Chicago Max Headroom signal hijacking, nor as strongly motivated as the Captain Midnight hijackings. As such, it occupies little space in the public consciousness.

MEDIA:

Side note and dropping my somewhat serious tone, this thumbnail makes me laugh so much. Unfortunately it is the most straightforward audio clip I could find, and I really didn't want to sit through any more reaction channels.

FURTHER READING:

Eugene Register-Guard - This is one of the newspapers which tried to propose that the incident was real.