On this day, April 27, in 1986, a Florida electrician who called himself Captain Midnight jammed HBO’s satellite signal in 1986 to broadcast a message protesting their rates for satellite dish owners.
An engineer at a satellite dish company, John R. MacDougall, 25, overrode HBO’s transmission of “The Falcon and the Snowman.” For nearly five minutes, HBO subscribers saw a text message that said, “GOODEVENING HBO FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT, $12.95/MONTH ? NO WAY ! [SHOWTIME/MOVIE CHANNEL BEWARE!]”
Within 24 hours. company officials were able to unmask the daring prankster. MacDougall, who took his name from a movie he recently watched, pleaded guilty to unauthorized transmission of an interfering signal and was fined $5,000.
Today, MacDougall owns MacDougall Electronics in Ocala, Fla.
– Scott McCabe
