On Saturday, November the 26th 1977, at 5.10 pm, viewers watching the news on Southern TV in England got a bit of a surprise; the soundtrack suddenly cut out and was replaced by a slow, masculine voice claiming to be someone called Vrilion, an alien who represented the ”Ashtar Galactic Command”. The voice spoke perfect English, but sounded not quite human, or was perhaps electronically distorted. In the background, a slow, bass, rhythmic, pulsing tone could be heard.
Vrillion announced that he had come to warn humans of the impending catastrophe their civilization was causing and how to avoid it. 5 of Southern’s transmitters were effected over the whole of Berkshire, Hampshire, and viewers as far away as Surrey parts of south London picked it up. The TV network received thousands of panicked calls and the police were mobilized. After about 6 minutes the broadcast returned to normal. The source of this interruption has never been traced. If it was a ”student hoax” (Why do students always get blamed for these things?) then the perpetrators have never been caught and never confessed. If it was a hoax then it would have been very difficult to carry out.
Breaking into a UHF TV signal is no mean feat, especially over such a wide area, even in the pre-digital age. It would have needed a lot of expensive technical equipment and the collaboration of many people over a wide area.