Phantom News Broadcasts

[Cavynaut]

I came across a letter in FT164 this afternoon. It concerned a woman who claims that she watched a Sky TV broadcast about an earthquake in South America. The earthquake didn't actually happen and the lady was somewhat confused to say the least. The most interesting thing was that she took down the phone number which appeared on screen in order to send a donation. Wonder if she ever dialled it?

Anyhow, I wondered if anyone has an explanation or any other examples of phantom broadcasts. I've heard of the one concerning the Flixboro' explosion in the early '70's.

 

[Pete Younger]

Perhaps it did happen, but in a parallel universe, just a thought.

 

[mejane]

A few weeks after a 'plane hit an apartment block in Amsterdam (I can't remember the date now, or the airline), I saw a sign outside a local newsagents saying "Japanese Plane Crash - 219 Killed".

I remember thinking "oh crap, not again" as there had been several (accidental) crashes recently... but there was no mention of this on the evening TV or radio news, and no one else remembers it.

Jane.

 

[Anonymous]

I've heard of the one concerning the Flixboro' explosion in the early '70's.

Can you tell us more about this, Cavy?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

This rang a bell and since Cavynaut hasn't yet replied, I had to
look it up. A full account is in "Arthur C. Clark's World of Strange
Powers" - his name is in the title but the book is a tv tie-in from
1984 and was actually compiled by John Fairley & Simon Welfare.

Turns out to have been a woman called Lesley Brennan of Cleethorpes
who saw a news flash during the morning of 1st June 1974. It told of
a serious explosion at the Flixborough chemical plant in which many
people had been killed and injured. The plant was about twenty miles
away so the story had some local interest and she told two friends
about it around noon.

When the first reports came in that evening, they believed that the
reporters had got the time wrong but later all the newspapers said
the explosion had taken place at 4:53pm. It had killed 28 people and
damaged some 2000 factories and shops. That seems a lot of factories
and shops, but it says so here.

Mrs Brennan and her friends told their story to the Grimsby Evening
Telegraph. The news flash had been at least five hours ahead of
the event. Or they were fibbing.

 

[Anonymous]

It had killed 28 people and damaged some 2000 factories and shops. That seems a lot of factories and shops, but it says so here.

I can beleive 2000. What happened was that a 20 inch pipe carrying heated cyclohexane (a bit more volatile that pump petrol) ruptured. The resulting cloud of cyclohexane vapour then exploded, rather like a fuel/air bomb. Something like that will blow out windows and knock over walls for a remarkable radius. It would undoubtedly have killed many more than 28, except that it happened late on Saturday afternoon. There are a couple pictures at the bottom of http://www.acusafe.com/Incidents/Flixborough1974/incident-flixborough1974.html

 

[Cavynaut]

This rang a bell and since Cavynaut hasn't yet replied, I had to
look it up. A full account is in "Arthur C. Clark's World of Strange
Powers" - his name is in the title but the book is a tv tie-in from
1984 and was actually compiled by John Fairley & Simon Welfare.

Thanks for that James. I didn't have time to look anything up last night and I've only just now managed to force my wife and daughter away from the PC.

I can't remember where I read this story, but I do remember the actual incident. I was travelling back to Hull by train and the smoke plume from the explosion was clearly visible from the north bank of the Humber.

I think that Mrs Brennans' story was told on one of the regional TV news programmes at some point.

 

[Yithian]

Interesting tales - pure speculation but perhaps these phantom news reports were mental constructs. That is to say that having (somehow) experienced psychic precognisions of the accidents, the reports were the product of a brain trying to rationalise a seemingly impossible foreknowledge into a recognisiable/everyday form. Kind of a flawed coping strategy.

As a similar example, i regularly sleep with radio 4/world service playing in the background and have often woken and recalled the most strange dreams as being part of news reports of radio plays.

 

[Anonymous]

Flixborough news bulletin

It wasn't just the woman in Arthur C Clarke's report that saw the Flixborough fire on TV before it happened...

I work with Reg Presley (of the 60's band, The Troggs) and he saw the exact same thing. He had the TV on in the background that day while doing something else and his attention was caught by this raging fire from the explosion. He remembers that the reporter said the heat from the fire was so fierce it was melting windows half a mile away. This was just after lunchtime that day.

When his wife got home around 4pm, he told her that she should watch the news that evening and see it for herself and he was absolutely gobsmacked when they said the fire hadn't started until late in the afternoon - a few hours after he's seen the news report!

He says the report that evening was exactly the same as the one he saw earlier - same reporter, same camera angles, etc.

The only thing he could think of to even begin to explain it was that the news report was sent via satellite and that the signal had possibly bounced off something in space which had sent it back to earth faster than it left.. if that makes any sense!!!

He's always been fascinated with the mystery so if anyone's figured it out, he's love to know about it!

 

[escargot]

Some years ago when pagers were all the rage I had one and it had a news headlines service. One day it told me that there had been a major breakthrough in the Suzy Lamplugh case and that an area had been identified for searching for her body. I was and am very interested in what happened to that poor girl and took special interest in the TV & radio news, and next day's newspaper, for the expected revelations. There were none- nothing at all. I was baffled.

A full year later, an area was identified just as I'd read on the pager. It was land which had belonged to the army but was now built over with houses. It seemed possible that the body might be there but would be impossible to find under the new buildings.

No idea what this was about.

 

[Anonymous]

As a similar example, i regularly sleep with radio 4/world service playing in the background and have often woken and recalled the most strange dreams as being part of news reports of radio plays.

Me too. And many other Radio 4 / World Service junkies I know.

I nearly always sleep with the World Service on and regularly dream the news. Sometimes my dreams go somewhat wide of the actual facts and it all gets muddled up.

The night Diana died was a classic example. In and out of sleep, I dreamed all sorts of fictions - including a very bizare live eye witness account. I think it was compounded by the fact that I know very well the stretch of road and had often thought how dangerous it is.

 

[escargot]

Hooooooooo alb, really? About the road, I mean. It certainly looks dangerous to me- dark, sudden curve, posts....

 

[Anonymous]

yeah. I definitely "remember" hearing an eye - witness account from a bloke with an unbelievably cod - French - accent who claimed to have seen the car striking the tunnel walls and then the barrier. He described ambulances arriving and all sorts. In my dream or half awake state I was absolutely struck by how bogus his accent sounded. And I had a clear view in my head of the swoop down to the tunnel entrance.

All mixed up in my sleepy and probably (in those days) slightly stoned state. But true or nor it exists for me as a very realistic memory which I can't quite remember in full.

It would have been the World Service I was listening too. Or, just possibly, Radio 5. Which I did sometimes tune to. Even more remotely - it could have been LBC News. Whatever that is called these days.

As for the road. It still is scary. I never take it at more than 50 kmh. You can't most of the time because of the traffic. And it's a dangerous downhill swoop. I'm surprised that more people don't die on that route. There is something in that - I mean how come many more others haven't died on that route.

 

[liveinabin]

I used to sleep with the radio on. One night they were reviewing the, then new, film Boxing Helena. They must have gone through the plot (IIRC doctor amputates wifes arms and legs and keeps her in a box for sex) which filtered into my dream. I had a couple of days worrying about my state of mental health before I heard about the film from another source and realised i wasn't nuts.

 

[Imperial_Call]

Sounds like that film FREQUENCY where a fella uses a ham radio during some strange conditions and talks to his father who died years ago ..

A few years ago Iwas watching Moonlighting on TV one night and my mother [as per usual] was talking all over it. I kept asking her to shut up [getting less polite each time] and she said "but this has been on before" I told her it hadn't it was a new series and therefore a new episode [which is was at the time] She insisted "well I've seen it" and proceeded to recite off lines of dialogue and tell what happens next, and she was right every time ... I've still never figured out how she did that

 

[Anonymous]

A few years ago Iwas watching Moonlighting on TV one night...

Maybe she'd seen the trailers?

 

[Imperial_Call]

Maybe she'd seen the trailers?

How much of an ep do they show in a trailer? not more than a few seconds ... this "phenomenon" lasted half the episode

 

[Anonymous]

How much of an ep do they show in a trailer? not more than a few seconds ... this "phenomenon" lasted half the episode

Actually, the amount shown on TV trailers appears to me to vary over time. I'm sure the BBC went through a phase of variant trailers for shows in the late 80s/early 90s.

 

[Imperial_Call]

nah, I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything to do with seeing a trailer ...

 

[Anonymous]

I read somewhere - forgive me if it's already been on this site - that in the 70's people in the Sussex area spoke of tv sets making speeches even when switched off.
Other people said the noise came from a transmission mast. A loud booming voice claimed to be "Gillon". The mystery remained although someone put through the theory that a mischief maker somehow hacked into the transmission to make his jokey alien speech.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I read somewhere - forgive me if it's already been on this site - that in the 70's people in the Sussex area spoke of tv sets making speeches even when switched off.
Other people said the noise came from a transmission mast. A loud booming voice claimed to be "Gillon". The mystery remained although someone put through the theory that a mischief maker somehow hacked into the transmission to make his jokey alien speech.

Anything to do with Ian Gillan, heavy metal musician?
He had a loud booming voice, and was about in the 70's.
Could be that his huge PA was broadcasting too much RF?

 

[Cavynaut]

I read somewhere - forgive me if it's already been on this site - that in the 70's people in the Sussex area spoke of tv sets making speeches even when switched off.
Other people said the noise came from a transmission mast. A loud booming voice claimed to be "Gillon". The mystery remained although someone put through the theory that a mischief maker somehow hacked into the transmission to make his jokey alien speech.

I remember something about that. The voice claimed to be from an alien civilisation or something, giving the usual doom laden warnings. The authorities eventually decided it was some kind of student prank or something, but I don't recall a full explanation ever being given.

 

[Pinklefish]

Fascinating stuff.

A couple of immediate thoughts - cover-ups, and media control of a situation.
The event could have happened earlier, but reporting was either later censored, or reports were modified for some reason. Can anyone think of a reason why you'd want to say something happened later than it did?
The first (slightly jaded of me, I know) thing that came to my mind is that they'd want it to "happen" closest to prime time for the news programmes, so they get maximum coverage. Highly unlikely I know but it made me laugh.

The other thing it could be is someone trying to warn people in advance, so that they might stop it somehow.

With the chemical plant explosion, could it be possible that the chemicals did something weird to TV signals? (Longshot or what)

I'm sure I've read about this before, either here or on the net, I will go search.
Edit: this is doing my head in. I am sure that I read somewhere about some people who were watching tv somewhere in England, possibly in the early 80's, and the TV picture changed to a "future" landscape with a female voice-over talking about the future.
There was some discussion as to whether it was in fact an advert.
This could have even been on this board...
Ring any bells with anyone?


Pinkle



P.S., I'd like to nominate escargot as the most fortean person here - it seems like if something's happened to anyone, it's also happened to her! Get thee to James Randi woman! (or a psychiatrist )

 

[Pete Younger]

Is this what you were thinking of Pink ?

 

[Pinklefish]

That's the bugger!
Cheers
(been looking for that for the last hour)

 

[Anonymous]

I remember something about that. The voice claimed to be from an alien civilisation or something, giving the usual doom laden warnings. The authorities eventually decided it was some kind of student prank or something, but I don't recall a full explanation ever being given.

Are you sure that this is the same event as the one mentioned by other posters? I remember reading something in the Bords' "Modern Mysteries of Britain" that followed the pattern you described, but this didn't take place with the TVs turned off.

Supposedly, it was during a news broadcast by Southern TV (or whatever it was called at the time - it became TVS and eventually Meridian), which would be the Dorset/Hampshire area and not Sussex (I could definitely be wrong about the "catchment area" for the different regions in the late 70s, though).

Anyway, apparently the volume dropped while the newsreader was talking and then a voice claiming to be from the Asta Galactic High Command (Asta being a quite popular character in alien-channelling circles, I believe) gave the usual homily on the folly of nuclear war - alas the Bords didn't quote him on specifics.

The explanation for this was indeed some sort of student prank, although there was some rather vague talk about how it would be impossible to over-ride the broadcast without extremely expensive equipment. Even at the age of 15, it struck me as a rather unconvincing discussion.

The reason the details stick in my mind (other than being fabulously weird) is that I lived in Bournemouth at the time, and paid rather more attention to the local news for a while, in case Asta decided to come back for another go. Although you'd think if they were serious, they'd speak to the Presidents of the US and USSR and not devotees of Fred Dineage's weather forecast.

Is this the same event as the Gillon one alluded to by other posters, or was there a whole plethora of space brother broadcasts in the 70s?

 

[escargot]

Hey Pink, I hope you don't think I'm pulling legs here!

I've never-

- been abducted by aliens
- experienced a timeslip
- seen a Yeti/ABC/Black Dog/Bigfoot

erm, trying hard to think of other non-experiences......

I have though experienced lots of minorly Fortean things. I think everyone does- we just push the thought away because it doesn't fit in with what we think we 'should' be seeing.

After being married for 20 years to someone who poured scorn on any remotely Fortean, paranormal or even conventionally religious concept, even when things happened directly to him, I am free to enjoy these experiences. And if I'm baffled, then that's fun too.

 

[Cavynaut]

James M

I think you're right about it being a different event. The one I'm thinking of didn't mention messages coming through the TV when it was turned off.

I've got a J&C Bord book about aliens somewhere upstairs and I'm sure it's mentioned in that. I'll have a look and se if I can find the bok and report back.

 

[Pinklefish]

Hey Pink, I hope you don't think I'm pulling legs here!

No worries. I just noticed that on almost every thread about something weird, you seemed to have experienced it!
I usually think this is akin to someone telling porkies.
But I'm willing to trust that you're being honest about these things!
Maybe you should set up some cameras in your house, see if you can capture something...you seem to be a magnet for odd phenomena.

pinkle

 

[Anonymous]

Supposedly, it was during a news broadcast by Southern TV (or whatever it was called at the time - it became TVS and eventually Meridian), which would be the Dorset/Hampshire area and not Sussex (I could definitely be wrong about the "catchment area" for the different regions in the late 70s, though).

I think I read this in the Daily Mail's "Answers to Questions" about a year ago. Someone submitted a query about the broadcasts and I'm sure they mentioned the Sussex/Brighton area. I live in the Southern/Meridien catchment zone and Brighton is definately part of it.

Is this the same event as the Gillon one alluded to by other posters, or was there a whole plethora of space brother broadcasts in the 70s?

I'm sure this must be the same incident. As you say, maybe it was replicated all around the south coast. Living slap bang between Brighton and Bournemouth, I'm sorry I was too young to recall it myself!
Someone wrote to the paper last year-ish and stated the name "Gillon" and we all fell about laughing because it sounded like such a cold, generic alien name. But all the other details you submitted seem to tally with what appeared in the Daily Mail. What I'd give to hear one of the broadcasts!