Wyoming TV Hijack

[DarkDan]

The Wyoming Incident (or The Wyoming Hijacking) is a lesser known case of television broadcast hijacking/hacking. A hacker managed to interrupt broadcasts from a local programming channel (believed to serve several smaller communities in the county of Niobrara) and aired his/her own video. The video contained numerous clips of disembodied, human heads showing various emotions and "poses". The camera position changed often (usually every ten-to-fifteen seconds) and the video was often interrupted by a "SPECIAL PRESENTATION" announcement. This clip is taken from one of these intervals.

The video is mostly locally well-known, and would probably not even be that popular if it were not for the effects it had on the few residents who watched it for an extended period of time. Complaints included vomiting, hallucinations, headaches, etc. While some believed it was paranormal, specialists have determined that the cause of these afflictions were frequencies played regularly throughout the broadcast. In this clip, the frequency being played is somewhere between 17 and 19 hz. This range of frequency, when played for long periods of time, causes the eyes to subtly vibrate, sometimes inducing visual hallucinations.

This video is significant in that is one of the most recent television hijackings. Such actions were rare even in the '80s (search for Chicago Max Headroom Incident) and are even more rare today. The hacker has not yet been caught, and all attempts to trace the video have proven futile.

Google video link. It's nothing really gross, it's mainly the title screen and a picture.

Did this happen? I just learned about the Max Headroom incident too and I watched the video of that and find that creepy. It spooked me out just watching it on YouTube, I would probably piss my pants if I watch actually watching TV and that came on.

[ViolentMarshmallow]

I've never heard of either until now but it's very interesting stuff. I'm having trouble finding any information on the Wyoming hijack other than the google vid you linked to. Seems it could be easily fabricated but I'll keep looking.

[diddy]

Complaints included vomiting, hallucinations, headaches, etc. While some believed it was paranormal, specialists have determined that the cause of these afflictions were frequencies played regularly throughout the broadcast.

I say untterly rediculous, the supposed highjacker could only output what the transmitter would allow and that would include the actual TV Sets themselves. Ive vegged out in from of my tv sets and regular broadcasing over extended periods of time and never exeperianced anything even remotley near whats being described. If a TV set could broadcast, a signal that could make one sick, the FCC woulnt allow it to be sold nor would any manufactuer (that would be a ripe breeding ground for lawsuits)

The closest think like that ever happening was the siezure incidence related to foregion Anamie, and that made national news fer crying out loud.

Plus, if a station was being hijacked, whats to stop the broadcaster from finding out (remember this was a local station) and cutting the feed? I doubt that most stations dont take lighly to having their feed disrupted.

I saw the Chicago Max headroom incident. My sister loved Dr. Who & had me tape all the episodes for her. We were running tape when that happened. The picture wasn't real clear & the broadcast was wierd, that's all I remember about it.

I don't know if she still has the tape & if she does, I don't know if we could track it down anymore, since we didn't mark it as the hijacked episode.

Originally Posted by diddy

I say untterly rediculous, the supposed highjacker could only output what the transmitter would allow and that would include the actual TV Sets themselves. Ive vegged out in from of my tv sets and regular broadcasing over extended periods of time and never exeperianced anything even remotley near whats being described. If a TV set could broadcast, a signal that could make one sick, the FCC woulnt allow it to be sold nor would any manufactuer (that would be a ripe breeding ground for lawsuits)

I don't really know the TV Broadcast protocols, but it's quite possible that it wouldn't even allow broadcast of signals in the 0-20 Hz range or so. Most audio equipment won't even play anything at these frequencies. And even if you have a nice sub-woofer, it would require all the audio amplification equipment to be responsive to those frequencies.

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by diddy

The closest think like that ever happening was the siezure incidence related to foregion Anamie, and that made national news fer crying out loud.

Even with that story, there is considerable reason to believe that the Pokemon incident was, in the very least, greatly exaggerated. (There was an article on the ULRP but I can't find it in the search.) Here is an article in Skeptical Inquirer Magazine:
http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-05/pokemon.html
That doesn't mean that in the OP incidents (if they really happened), people didn't report those feelings. A certain significant portion of the viewers are extremely suggestable.

[TheLazenby]

This interested me enough that I did an experiment. The tone that caused hallucinations was 19Hz. So, I downloaded a tone generator program, and made a WAV file of that. My sound card couldn't produce it, but I burned it onto a CD, and listened to it with headphones - it was audible on my stereo.

And I can actually say that exposure to that for about a minute does cause your eyes to vibrate (almost immediately in fact), plus unprovoked fear and hallucinations. I gradually felt more and more afraid, and started seeing things out of the corners of my eyes that weren't there.

So there - science rules!

[mags]

I wonder if that frequency explains an issue I had when I was having a root canal. There was one drill that the dentist used periodically which vibrated my head at what felt like my resonant frequency, and I kept feeling like if he didn't stop it, I was going to go insane. Fortunately he didn't use it for very long at a go. It wasn't due to fear of the drill or anything like that, it was the specific vibration I just couldn't stand.

No hallucinations, tho.

Hey Mr. Lazenby,

I wants a copy of your wave file. Use it to get visitors to move along when I'm sick of 'em. No, actually just because I'm curious. Can you post it somewhere?

[TheLazenby]

Well, since WAV files are big, I'll just give you the link to the (much smaller) program I used to generate it:

http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html

On my stereo, I noticed that any adjustment of the volume, bass, or treble dials made the tone fluctuate and have a lesser effect (i couldn't figure out how to make it greater), so you're going to have to do some experimenting to get it just right. (Wear those big thick isolating headphones... you'll know REAL QUICK! )

[Noemi]

One of the things that jumps out at me is that there really isn't such a thing as a local programming station in Wyoming, we just don't have enough people for it. I can't even come up with anything in that area that is designed to "serve several smaller communities in the county of Niobrara".

Noemi

[DarkDan]

I tried the experiment to and started to feel queasy and get a headache, but I think it's because I am expecting something to happen. Plus, I just checked the frequency of my headphones and it fits in there (15 to 27,000 Hz), but my MP3 player only goes from 20 to 20,000 Hz. So I guess it's just a placebo effect for me.

Dark "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" Dan

[TheLazenby]

Don't do it on an MP3 player - make a long WAV file, and burn it to a CD that you can play on your stereo.

I actually got it to make my entire body vibrate; must've cranked up the bass or something. (Considering I was listening to headphones, that's damn good.)

[RayPV]

For those of you who didn't see the max headroom hijack video, here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnDYssFcNxc

[TheLazenby]

Shortly after I saw the Wyoming vid, I made a spoof:

http://prettythings.ytmnd.com/

[TheLazenby]

Well, the current opinion is that it was fake. Wikipedia even removed it from their article about TV hijacking.

It just seems to be a viral video, or series of videos. Another "part" is on youTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=K21YdhuxjlM

[TuFurg]

I would assume if it were real we would have seen the actual interuption of the program instead of just the video.

Cool stuff on the Max Headroom thing- had never heard of that.

[TheLazenby]

This seems like it's starting to add up - a lot of people (including myself) have compared this to The Ring; and the description of the YouTube version ("Someone left this on my doorstep") also seems to play into The Ring, especially if you consider the promotion for the first movie in which people left the videotape in public places.

I'm starting to think that this may be an early viral promotion for "The Ring Three", which is coming out next year.

I saw the YouTube video earlier today (I think someone posted it on this board by accident, it was supposed to be Johnny Knoxville or something - I can't quite remember) but was intrigued and watched. I must say, it made me feel uneasy. It freaked me out a lot too.

It would make sense that it was some viral promotion. I definately won't be watching it again though

In the original version on youtube, i reckoned the face that appeared resembled the character john Locke from lost, if it's a viral video, a tenner says it's about that.

R 'Elementary my dear Watson' Shady