The Hannington transmitting station stands on high ground in north Hampshire, between Basingstoke and Newbury. In 1977 it carried Southern Television’s ITV programs to homes across a wide stretch of southern England. Like many relay stations of the period, it did not receive its programs down a landline. It picked up the signal broadcast by another transmitter, at Rowridge on the Isle of Wight, and sent it out again. That arrangement explains what happened on the evening of Saturday November 26, 1977.
What happened
At about ten past five the ITN newsreader Ivor Mills was presenting a short bulletin that included the war in Rhodesia. For viewers served by Hannington, the sound sank under a low buzz while the picture carried on as normal. A deep, electronically distorted voice then spoke for several minutes; accounts of the length range from about four to nearly six. It introduced itself as Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command, a name already familiar in UFO contactee circles. The speech told listeners that humanity must give up its weapons and learn to live in peace in time for a coming new age, warned against false prophets who would take people’s money, and said that the speaker’s people had been watching Earth and wanted to help. Normal sound returned in time for the cartoon that followed.
Southern Television knew nothing about it until viewers began to call. The company received hundreds of calls, and police in Winchester logged more than fifty emergency calls. Within two days the story was in British papers and on American wire services, with the speaker’s name variously printed as Vrillon, Gillon or Asteron and his message embellished in some reports into a threat of invasion.
The investigation
Engineers quickly worked out how it had been done. Because Hannington rebroadcast whatever its receiving aerial picked up from Rowridge, a low-powered transmitter placed close enough to that aerial could overpower the genuine signal, and the station would then amplify the intruder’s audio across its whole service area. The Independent Broadcasting Authority said the trick required considerable technical skill and described it as the first incident of its kind in Britain. The Post Office, which policed radio licensing, joined the police and the IBA in the inquiry. On November 30 Southern announced that it had identified the method and closed the loophole, while a spokesman admitted there was little hope of catching the culprit unless it happened again. Under the Wireless Telegraphy Act the offense carried a fine of up to 200 pounds. By December the Home Office described its inquiry as complete. No one was ever charged.
The explanations
At the time nobody responsible doubted that this was a human prank. The broadcasters said so within a day, and the Aetherius Society, a British organization that believes in benevolent beings from other planets, agreed. A few ufologists took the message at face value. In December 1977 Sir John Whitmore told the London radio station LBC that he had heard a complete recording and that nothing in it was threatening, contrary to some newspaper reports. The content itself points to an earthly author: it reproduces the themes of the 1950s contactee movement, peace, disarmament and a spiritual awakening, delivered through a voice changer by someone with the equipment and know-how to reach a relay mast.
Where it stands
The episode passed into British broadcasting folklore, and in 1999 the regional broadcaster Meridian reconstructed it for its series It’s a Mystery. No full recording has been made public. Ten years after Hannington, a masked intruder took over two Chicago stations in the Max Headroom incident, which also went unsolved. The Southern Television case remains a hoax with a known method and an unknown author.