The Vrillon TV broadcast interruption
On 26 November 1977 a voice calling itself Vrillon, speaking for a group it named the Ashtar Galactic Command, replaced the sound of a Southern Television broadcast in parts of southern England. The person responsible was never identified.
On Saturday 26 November 1977, the audio of a Southern Television broadcast in parts of southern England was replaced by a voice. Wikipedia records that the voice claimed to represent the "Ashtar Galactic Command" and urged humanity to give up its weapons and live peacefully, so it could join a future awakening and reach a higher state of evolution.
The Jerusalem Post places the event during the early evening news on Southern TV, and mentions a beeping sound, with broadcaster Andrew Gardner vanishing from the programme. Podcasting Today names reporter Ivor Mills as the presenter when distortion began. It quotes the voice introducing itself as Vrillon, a representative of that same group.
A Southern Television spokesperson said at the time that an unidentified party had disrupted the North Hampshire broadcast by transmitting very close to it. The Jerusalem Post, writing in 2023, calls the episode an unsolved mystery. The person responsible was never identified.
"The Southern Television broadcast interruption was a broadcast signal intrusion, or pirate broadcast, that occurred on 26 November 1977 in parts of southern England in the United Kingdom. The audio of a Southern Television broadcast was replaced by a voice claiming to represent the "Ashtar Galactic Command", delivering a message instructing humanity to abandon its weapons and live in peace with one another so it could participate in a "future awakening" and "achieve a higher state of evolution"."
- The six-minute mystery of the 'Alien TV Broadcast' remains unsolved, The Jerusalem Post (2023)
- The Interruption podcast looks at the first broadcast hijacking, Podcasting Today (2022)