Southern Television Broadcast Interruption - Hoax or Real?

[UpToLight]

The Southern Television broadcast interruption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Television_broadcast_interruption_hoax_(1 977)) was a broadcast interruption through the Hannington transmitter of the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the United Kingdom at 5:10 PM on 26 November 1977. It is generally considered to be a hoax, but the identity of the intruder is unknown.
A speaker interrupted transmissions for six minutes and claimed to be a representative of an "Intergalactic Association". Reports of the incident vary, some calling the speaker "Vrillon"[1] or "Gillon", others "Asteron".[2][3]

The voice, which was disguised and accompanied by a deep buzzing, broke into the broadcast of the local ITV station Southern Television, over-riding the UHF audio signal of the early-evening news being read by Andrew Gardner[citation needed] from ITN to warn viewers that "All your weapons of evil must be removed" and "You have but a short time to learn to live together in peace."

The interruption ceased shortly after the statement had been delivered, transmissions returning to normal shortly before the end of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Later in the evening, Southern Television apologised for what it described as "a breakthrough in sound" for some viewers. ITN also reported on the incident in its own late-evening Saturday bulletin.

The broadcast took over the sound only, leaving the video signal unaltered.

Here is the footage from broadcast:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afXKOt3A0xc

I was wondering if this was discussed here and if this was debunked or not.

[happyuk]

As to whether it was a hoax or not I genuinely do not know.

At the end of the day, whether it is the Ashtar Galactic Command who was trying to drive home the message does not matter. Truth is truth, whether it comes from the lips of David Icke, Mahatma Gandhi or the man in the street.

I think the essential message contained in the transcript (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Television_broadcast_interruption_hoax_%281977%29#Transcript) is basically true, and that is what is important.

Reading the history of armed conflict right up to the most recent skirmishes, one may reasonably surmise that the problems of mankind have not been solved by the use of force. World War I produced a snowball of karma that swelled into World War II.

Only love for our fellow human beings can melt the current colossal snowball of war karma which may otherwise grow into World War III. The use of nuclear weapons would banish forever the possibility of World War IV, leaving only a dead planet. Use of jungle logic in settling disputes will restore the earth to a jungle.

War and blind selfishness never pay: the trillions of dollars that have been spent on explosive nothingness would have been sufficient to free everyone from discomfort and poverty. Our armaments have failed. Period. It is time to find some new approaches not based on weapons and rivalry.

[DeDukshyn]

Those damn New Age Hippy aliens trying to make us get rid of our WMDs and embrace peace. Clearly they don't know that without our built in daily evil and threats of WMDs and other atrocities that we we can't be a peaceful, civilized society and might degenerate ??? :confused: :confused: :P

[sheme]

I don't know if this happened or not- but I can say the human voice that runs over the film pretending to be that of the presenter in the initial minutes- it is not the voice of the presenter we see moving. I am old enough to remember his distinctive voice. The message is a good one but one can not help but think the tech used to deliver the message was very primitive, a bit too primitive sadly.

[DeDukshyn]

I don't know if this happened or not- but I can say the human voice that runs over the film pretending to be that of the presenter in the initial minutes- it is not the voice of the presenter we see moving. I am old enough to remember his distinctive voice. The message is a good one but one can not help but think the tech used to deliver the message was very primitive, a bit too primitive sadly.

Perhaps strangely due to all the timing considerations, but it looked very hoaxed to me ... As though someone had taken some old footage and doctored it up, then wrote a Wikipedia article about it. Who knows for sure, but I don't give it much credit, personally.

[Nick Matkin]

Hoax (i.e. not aliens!) But the taking over the TV sound really happened and I know how it was done.

At the time that particular TV transmitter at Hannington was unusual in that it was one that served a very large area but, unusually for such an important transmitter, it transmitted its signal by receiving and rebroadcasting signals from a transmitter at Rowridge on the Isle of Wight. Normally such important TV transmitters would have a direct cable feed from the studios. Relaying/rebroadcasting other transmitters in this way in the UK is usually reserved for small fill-in transmitters.

So why didn’t they hijack the picture too? Easy. The analogue TV picture signal was amplitude modulated (AM). The sound was frequency modulated (FM). It is relatively easy to completely override an FM signal with another signal that is only slightly stronger than the one you want to block (known as capture effect). To do the same with AM is much harder.

All these guys had to do was drive up to the Hannington transmitter (out in the middle of nowhere), switch on their little FM transmitter which is transmitting on the same frequency as the TV sound signal of Southern TV from Rowridge, and hey presto, their signal easily overrides the Rowridge TV sound signal and the Hannington transmitter relays the pirate signal all over the south of England!

These guys knew what they were doing – easy when you know how!

(I believe that not long after this fiasco the Hannington transmitter got a proper secure cable feed and only used the off-air signal in the event of losing the cable feed.)

Congratulations in finding a recording. Very impressive…

BTW, the newsreader is Cliff Michelmore

Nick

[RMorgan]

Man...There are so much charlatans, con men and hoaxers involved with the so called "Ashtar Command" from the "Galactic Federation of Light".

Anyway, it´s pretty impressive how Vrillon is well versed in Earthly astrology terms, like "age of Aquarius" and key new-age terms like "the great awakening". ;)

So, if you ask me, I would definitively say hoax.

[DeDukshyn]

Man...There are so much charlatans, con men and hoaxers involved with the so called "Ashtar Command" from the "Galactic Federation of Light".

Anyway, it´s pretty impressive how Vrillon is well versed in Earthly astrology terms, like "age of Aquarius" and key new-age terms like "the great awakening". ;)

So, if you ask me, I would definitively say hoax.

For me hoax signals are anything that envelopes a perspective from ego. I do believe in "legit" channelings even, -- often easily discerned. As soon as there is a grand "I AM xxxxxxxx from the xxxxxxx" - that indicates the ego's willingness to feel important by title -- and anything spoken or written by ego rarely is worth the audience they command (although ego can occasionally come up with something worthy). Genuine stuff will be found by odd circumstance in an odd place and helped / endorsed by an odd person to an individual on an individual level --- and none of that will have any relevance to it's "source". If something you come across in that method "feels" right --- there may well be some really good wisdom in there for you (speaking generally to generally all) ;) Else ... be wary, and even better, if the message has a positive value and you can seperate that from it's source or intent -- go with it. Positive outcome is positive outcome -- as long as one is vigilant about it and separates the positive message from the source.

[wobbegong]

Those damn New Age Hippy aliens trying to make us get rid of our WMDs and embrace peace. ...

...apparently...though...they have the best flying-saucer-grown weed :hippie:

LOL...I think it was discussed before but it's good to see it come up every now and again. I was always puzzled by it because if it is a hoax it was surely well orchestrated.
About wether it was debunked or not, I believe that the intrusion was confirmed to have been 'genuine', but the source remains unknown.
So, for what it's worth, this is my take:
on the technical side (I'm not very technical so feel free to tear my thesis to pieces :o ) I think that voice synthesis, together with technologies capable of overlapping a television broadcast, were not very well developed back in the seventies, so whoever did it was not a common joker. It had to have been someone either from some secret scientific group or ops or ETs, or maybe both?

The rhythmic background thump and the solemnity of the voice is definitely something tailored to impress a human audience, so if it wasn't engineered by humans, it was definitely done by ETs who have studied humans very well.

I agree that the content is precious advice,

(happyuk) ...I think the essential message contained in the transcript is basically true, and that is what is important. ...

but just for the sake of making some considerations on its genuinity, I think there are a few aspects that to me still make it suspicious: it talks about the Age of Aquarius, which I believe is a very human concept...the whole New Age movement etc. it just seems funny that an ET would use it, that's all.
The other thing is the timing...didn't the whole GFL channellings start shortly after then? It seems like it was an introduction to all the 'love&light' ascensionistic movement. Maybe the GFL (whoever they may be...human or ET) just copied the name and the gist because it sounded good...who knows.

[DeDukshyn]

it talks about the Age of Aquarius, which I believe is a very human concept... <snip> ...who knows.

Along with my other observations ... Do keep in mind that astrology is the oldest and longest term system of timing conceptually known to man. Understanding the origins of astrology and of the "Ages" -- a concept based on around the ~26,000 year old processional cycle of the earth broken into 12 ~2,100 year "ages" indicates that knowledge of these systems and their breakdowns were unknown to ancient man means one or both of two things: Astrology has extra terrestrial origins, and / or, the history of the earth is a big fat lie.

I'd say a little of both .... but I stand by what I say here, in regards to this video.

[Nick Matkin]

So, for what it's worth, this is my take:
on the technical side (I'm not very technical so feel free to tear my thesis to pieces :o ) I think that voice synthesis, together with technologies capable of overlapping a television broadcast, were not very well developed back in the seventies, so whoever did it was not a common joker. It had to have been someone either from some secret scientific group or ops or ETs, or maybe both?


You're correct, these were not common jokers; like I said, it's easy when you know how. Engineers and serious amateurs have known how to do this sort of thing for decades. The capture effect I mentioned in post #6 was understood since early FM broadcasting experiments in the 1930s.

Despite what was written by Janet and Colin Bord in their book "Mysterious Britain" there was no "sophisticated protection" on this transmitter. That's exactly why it was chosen.

And any Dr Who fan will know that impressive voice-altering effects were available by the early 1960s.

There really is no need for anyone to invoke a non-human cause for technical shenanigans with which the man-in-the-street may be unfamiliar.

Nick

[wobbegong]

You're correct, these were not common jokers; like I said, it's easy when you know how. Engineers and serious amateurs have known how to do this sort of thing for decades. The capture effect I mentioned in post #6 was understood since early FM broadcasting experiments in the 1930s.

Despite what was written by Janet and Colin Bord in their book "Mysterious Britain" there was no "sophisticated protection" on this transmitter. That's exactly why it was chosen.

And any Dr Who fan will know that impressive voice-altering effects were available by the early 1960s.

There really is no need for anyone to invoke a non-human cause for technical shenanigans with which the man-in-the-street may be unfamiliar.

Nick
Thanks mate, that's interesting and clarifies the seemingly hard to achieve technical feat. I actually hadn't seen your post n.6, sorry about that, it's because I took me a bit long to write my post (...interruptions...) and yours wasn't present when I started.
About no need for invoking a non-human cause for technical shenanigans, sure, I agree in general, but since this whole joke has been an integral part of that scenario, ETs etc. it's fair enough that even ETs are considered as a possibility.

[boja]

Nobody ever claimed verifiable responsibility for it

[scanner]

Who knew in 1977 nearly 40 years ago that's EXACTLY what's happening right now . I give you Cyprus then the rest of Europe and the final card US .

[Nick Matkin]

Nobody ever claimed verifiable responsibility for it

Because what they did was illegal, breaking the Wireless Telegraphy Act, (probably on at least two counts) and possibly trespass, although they may well have been able to do what they did from a public right of way.

At best they would have had a heavy fine, at worst a prison sentence. Neither look good on a CV if you want future employment.

Nick

[Tony]

The announcer was Cliff Michialmore, and that wasn't his voice at the beginning. It was a voice over from the start.


.....Sheep are controlled by spooking them!

[Nick Matkin]

The announcer was Cliff Michialmore, and that wasn't his voice at the beginning. It was a voice over from the start.


.....Sheep are controlled by spooking them!

Yes Pie. On listening more closely, you are quite right about the voice! I just thought the voice was out of sync, but it's not Cliff Michialmore's voice, it is Andrew Gardner’s as originally cited.

The plot thickens... Cliff Mitchialmore is seen presenting Southern TV’s local news “Day by Day”, but Andrew Gardner’s voice is reading international news. The main news headlines are sometimes given briefly at the end of local news, but that sounds like a proper bulletin. I dare say with some research it could be ascertained if that particular bulletin was likely to have been read on the day in question.

Although the event really did happen and is well documented, this throws into doubt the validity of the whole Youtube video which has been posted.

It’s already been established that the picture was not affected (why this was so I explained in post #6), yet on seeing the video that was clearly not the case. (I’m not refereeing to the text, which was obviously added to the Youtube version for clarity as this was not originally transmitted.) Nevertheless, it is possible that while the pirate FM sound transmitter was being adjusted on to the required frequency, it strayed onto the vision frequency and caused the interference seen, which may have been only at the very start.

All in all, I suspect the video is just a recreation of the event (by adding the text, maybe the visual effects and soundtrack) since as far as I know there has never been a video recording of the incident released into the public domain, which was why I was a bit surprised by the original posting. I’m sure if I were a perpetrator of this prank, I’d make sure someone at home was recording it for posterity! There is almost certainly an original recording somewhere.

On the other hand, if the video is a genuine recording of the event, why was the sound track changed?

Someone, somewhere knows…

Nick

[Tony]

TOK-c_QF7sg

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

[UpToLight]

TOK-c_QF7sg

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

WOW! Thanks. This debunks the video. Youtubers mixed the audio with video.

But the audio is intriguing. Was it alien or hoaxer? This needs to be proved or debunked.

[sheme]

Ah yes the voice I remember.

[Nick Matkin]

WOW! Thanks. This debunks the video. Youtubers mixed the audio with video.

But the audio is intriguing. Was it alien or hoaxer? This needs to be proved or debunked.

As far as I'm concerned I'm pretty sure it was a clever hoax for all the technical reasons already explained. And the video re-edited/mixed to recreate the moment for dramatic effect. It fooled me! :doh:

When I said above in post #17 "On the other hand, if the video is a genuine recording of the event..." I meant a genuine of-air recording made of the event by a stay-at-home-working-the-video-recorder friend of the hoaxers, not a recording of real alien signals.

Aliens... really! Why would they pick on that one transmitter - unless their technology was as crude as the pranksters! Surely if they wanted to, their superior technology would be more impressive and cover the whole world, or at least all of the UK - with pictures!

If the aliens really did it in 1977, they would have done it again since - wouldn't they?