Episode 82 - CHICAGO PRANKS-AS-PROTEST: Max Headroom Signal Hijacking/Disco Demolition

Episode 82 of MARS MESSINA PRESENTS revisits two controversial pranks that became legendary. Both occurred in Chicago: the Max Headroom Signal Hijacking (the cyberpunk takeover of two local TV stations, in the middle of broadcasting) and the promotional stunt at Comiskey Park, original home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team, known as Disco Demolition Night, in the middle of a doubleheader. On one hand, the stunts were serious enough to have potentially caused much more trouble than was originally intended. On the other hand, both pranks were meant to challenge a much larger authority and reclaim independence. In either case, they captured Chicago's imagination and there are people who claim to have been there to witness, or even participate, in what has now become the stuff of local legend.

BEDTIME STORIES FROM THE ACOUSTIC BOOKSHELF features an excerpt from, THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, by Mark Twain.

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