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Radio Station Hijacked Eight Times In the Past Month To Play 'I'm a Wanker' Song (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bleeping Computer: An unknown hacker has hijacked the radio frequency of a UK radio station to play an obscene song eight times during the past month, according to the radio station's manager who recently revealed the hacks in an interview with BBC Radio 4. The hacks have been reported to Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, who together with the radio station's staff have tried to track down the culprit at last three times, without success. Ofcom and radio station officials believe the hacker is using a mobile radio transmitter to broadcast a stronger signal on the radio station's normal frequency, overriding its normal program. In eight different occasions, the hacker has taken over broadcasts and has been heard talking, screaming, or singing, and then playing "The Winker's Song" (NSFW) by British comedian Ivor Biggun, a track about self-pleasure released in the 70s. Station manager Tony Delahunty told BBC Radio he received phone calls from distressed listeners complaining that their kids started humming the song. Fellow radio stations also called Delahunty to inquire about the hack, fearing similar hijacks.

33 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Funny! by LucasTétreault · · Score: 5, Funny

    "calls from distressed listeners complaining that their kids started humming the song" -- that's hilarious

    1. Re:Funny! by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 4, Funny

      "calls from distressed listeners complaining that their kids started humming the song" -- that's hilarious

      Yeah, the concept of the wanker song distressing mum and daddy is funny. Think of the Children!!!

      I for one, welcome our new wanking overlords and their jam.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    2. Re:Funny! by HalAtWork · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree, and personally I'm happy to have something like this lift my spirits and lighten things up

    3. Re: Funny! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Daddy what does wanker mean?"

      When "Cluster's Revenge" for the Atari 2600 got featured in a magazine article, I asked my father what the word "seduce" meant. He read the article and ripped up the magazine.

    4. Re: Funny! by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 2

      "Daddy what does wanker mean?"

      Simple answer "Wait until you are married and your partner is pissed at you. Then you'll understand. "

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    5. Re:Funny! by n4wff · · Score: 2

      I agree, and personally I'm happy to have something like this lift my spirits and lighten things up

      The story or the act? :)

    6. Re: Funny! by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      I though a better answer is, it's what married men do in the toilet when they are in there too long and what married women do in the shower when they are in there to long. Being a bachelor and not knowing why, how come married men do it in the toilet and married women do it in the shower, of course that could be all old stuff from the days of stick books that would of course get wet in the shower and women apparently just need their imagination and to be able to drown out the outside world.

      One can understand the earlier prohibition to self hormonal adjustment, where higher breeding numbers were required to feed endless wars but you would think we would be able to calm things down now. Of course with the opposites sexes becoming so demanding off each other, self hormonal adjustment might become too popular.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. Re:Did they hack grafitti onto the building, too? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 2

    It is well in line with the more traditional meaning of "hacking," the one rms will go on and on about.

    --
    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  3. A stronger signal? by dlleigh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > Ofcom and radio station officials believe the hacker is using a mobile radio transmitter to broadcast a stronger signal on the radio station's normal frequency, overriding its normal program.

    Either this is the weakest commercial radio station in the world, or the "hacker" has access to a massive amplifier and antenna, or he's just overriding the station's frequency in a very small area. My money is on the last of those, and also that this story is of negligible significance.

    Or perhaps the officials are wrong and the guy is overpowering a much weaker studio-to-transmitter link and using the station's own signal to broadcast his onanistic outrage.

    1. Re:A stronger signal? by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Either this is the weakest commercial radio station in the world, or the "hacker" has access to a massive amplifier and antenna, or he's just overriding the station's frequency in a very small area.

      I'd guess he's overpowering the uplink on a relay. The area might not be that small.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:A stronger signal? by ve3oat · · Score: 2

      I think this last option (over powering the studio-transmitter link) is much more likely. Even a low-power radio used by the pirate in the vicinity of the station's transmitter site could over-power the weaker signal from the distant studio. So the transmitter site receives only the signal from the pirate and not the weaker signal from the studio, especially if the STL uses frequency modulation (FM) (and I think most of them do). This trick is easy to do, and I am surprised it doesn't happen more often.

    3. Re:A stronger signal? by scdeimos · · Score: 2

      Either this is the weakest commercial radio station in the world, or the "hacker" has access to a massive amplifier and antenna, or he's just overriding the station's frequency in a very small area. My money is on the last of those, and also that this story is of negligible significance.

      I agree, it's likely the last. Before Bluetooth head units became common in cars people used to have FM transmitters plugged into their iDevices to play music/podcasts through their car speakers. It wasn't uncommon to have your preferred radio station overridden by someone's transmitter set to a commercial frequency as they passed you in traffic.

    4. Re:A stronger signal? by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'd guess he's overpowering the uplink on a relay. The area might not be that small.

      You are right, they covered this in greater depth on radio 4. It is during outside broadcasts, where the radio broadcasts from a reporter with a microphone to a base unit to the station. They were not clear on whether the stronger signal overcame the link from the microphone to the base unit or from the base unit to the station.

      What surprises me is that this is not encrypted.

    5. Re:A stronger signal? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Something doesn't make sense here. If this person was overpowering an outside broadcast unit, why didn't the station just switch to some other signal (like the presenter in their offices) instead of playing that song?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:A stronger signal? by Chrisq · · Score: 2

      It's quite possible that the link isn't even digital, it may be FM analogue.

      very possibly. The Guardian says:

      We are told by Ofcom who are investigating the matter, that you only need, and this is the frightening thing, a small transmitter and if you can get near where there is an outside broadcast or a signal and you can overpower that signal [and] you’re on the airwaves.

    7. Re:A stronger signal? by bickerdyke · · Score: 2

      Presumably because they're not doing their jobs and paying attention to what is going out over the air.

      I guess the song was an accurate description of what the guys in the station were doing at that time.....

      Ever heard dead air on the radio?

      The stations I know have an automated "emergency" loop for that, starting a special playlist directly to the transmitter if the input is silent for more than 30 seconds. The playlist has songs usually NOT on rotation so even engineers off duty will be alerted (if they listen to the station) and suddenly can hear "Help" (Bangles version)

      --
      bickerdyke
  4. But by sys64764 · · Score: 2

    why is he a hacker? This is just transmitting FM with a not so regulatory amp? If he would hack the digital feed in their studio he would be a hacker but now he's just a guy who bought some equipment and dialed in a radio station frequency and is driving around the city. Hacking my ass. But he still gets points for style, execution and repetition!

    1. Re: But by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

      Because they actually know what the word hacker means.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  5. Not a hack by Hentes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is just an old fashioned pirate radio.

  6. There were dropped monocles everywhere! by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've never heard so many cries of "Well, I never!" There were bodies lying prostrate on fainting couches all about the city! The horror!

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  7. they never found the max headroom hacker by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2
  8. The wheels of government grind slowly... by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It will be awhile, but if the pirate continues doing this, they will find him and grind them into dust.

    Most people don't realize that the BEST jokes are the ones that happen only a few times and when the jokester does it enough to be noticed but stops before they get caught.

    Some of my best pranks are ones I only did a few times with long intervals in between. The best being an E-mail prank that I only pulled twice in 3 years and nobody suspected that it was me until a decade later after I told the Sys Admin staff the secret on my last day so they could fix the hole. I still remember the crazy searching for the perpetrator and the hand wringing memos from embarrassed management types getting posted on the bulletin boards in the break room....

    Then there was the changing of the channels in the cafeteria TV's that just mysteriously happened even though they where out of reach and the remote controls locked up in the boss' office...I did that one a couple of times a week, using an IR recording/playback device, for a month, stopped when the Boss set up a surveillance camera, then did it every few weeks once the camera disappeared. I'm sure it drove him crazy because he was complaining about it in public... Not sure if he caught on to me after I left there or not, but I got really tired of CNN only on the TV's at lunch.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  9. Priorities by BlytheBowman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You know what is even more obscene? Parents getting upset over this instead of bands of kids setting sleeping homeless men and women on fire for the thrill of it, something that happens in both the US and the UK

  10. Remember the "Max Headroom" TV hack in 1987? by BlytheBowman · · Score: 2

    I imagine they were able to pull that one by sending their own, more powerful microwave signal to the remote broadcast tower that most TV stations used. The FM capture effect (analog TV video used a variant of AM with the audio being FM for normal broadcast, but I am sure the station to tower mw link was all FM), helped insure a complete takeover of the broadcast tower.

  11. More like hijack by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah that could have been worded better. Signal hijacking or intrusion is a better word. The transmitter towers are line of sight from the studio so all you need is a transmitter and antenna to get in the way. I wish the Max Headroom guy would come forward and reveal the details. The statute is limitations is long up.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  12. a hack? by Pax681 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ofcom and radio station officials believe the hacker is using a mobile radio transmitter to broadcast a stronger signal on the radio station's normal frequency, overriding its normal program. In eight different occasions, the hacker has taken over broadcasts and has been heard talking, screaming, or singing, and then playing "The Winker's Song"

    a mobile transmitter... sounds like ge's got himself a CB radio with sidebands (illegal in the UK) which can hit the FM spectrum allocated to radio stations. then plug that little fucker into a linear amplifier(even 100watts will blast the shit out that station) and the antenna of your choice depending on how immediately mobile you feel you need to be.
    As I recall you go onto the am bands and then hit the "high button".. and that takes you into FM where you can pick a station or an empty space to broadcast over/on. My cousin and i used to do something like that except we'd broadcast in vacant parts of the radio frequency and always from a different location.... mind you that was in the 80's and long before we got out Full RAE exams passed and became licensed radio amateurs.. way back when an MM0 *** call sign was shiny and new.

    1. Re:a hack? by CRC'99 · · Score: 3, Informative

      a mobile transmitter... sounds like ge's got himself a CB radio with sidebands (illegal in the UK) which can hit the FM spectrum allocated to radio stations

      What CB radios do you guys have that'll do 230Khz wide signals in 88-108MHz? Certainly can't get this with a 27MHz CB....

      --
      Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
  13. Re:What a legend! by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    respect to this radio pirate

    A 21 wanker solute!

  14. or the Captain Midnight hack by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    Where he over powered the HBO satellite signal

  15. Re:Did they hack grafitti onto the building, too? by Psion · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You should look into the history of the word "Hack" ... it didn't originate with computers, but with model railroading and made the leap over into computers via MIT's model railroading club.

  16. Re:Good old days of hacking by sexconker · · Score: 2

    At least trolling is still a art.

  17. Re:Did they hack grafitti onto the building, too? by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For pity's sake, are you new? Hacking and phreaking (which is a word put together from phone hacking) were terms applied to radio, telegraphy, and telephony long before computers. Where do you think the term came from? It's from cutting into communications - sometimes it involved physically cutting into the wires, sometimes it involved cutting into signals. Hence the word "hack". One would find a myriad of ways to piggyback onto transcontinental radio and telegraphy.

    Take your two minutes of rage and face it into a mirror.

  18. Re:Radio: Details by l20502 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are parts of Europe which haven't switched to DAB+

    Oh, boy I can't wait for another finicky all-or-nothing digital broadcasting system and hundreds of radio sets at the recycling bin.