[Genesis Radio HQ] – [Feb 21, 2025] – It started as just another late-night system check. Doc, Genesis Radio’s fearless program director and IT overlord, was alone in the server room, making sure the automation system wasn’t planning another coup. The hum of the machines filled the air. The monitors flickered. The station was operating smoothly… or so he thought.
And then, he appeared.
Max. Freaking. Headroom.
The glitchy, grinning, slightly-too-smug digital specter of the 80s suddenly flickered onto every single server screen at once, his perfectly pixelated face smirking back at Doc.
“Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buhhhhhh… hello, Doc. Miss me?”
THE VISITATION
Doc, running on three hours of sleep and two energy drinks, stared at the screens in confused horror.
“I… I don’t remember installing this,” he muttered, slowly reaching for the keyboard.
“Oh, Doc, Doc, Doc,” Max chuckled, his head tilting in that trademark, unnervingly jittery way. “I’m not an installation. I’m an interruption.”
The room went ice cold. The monitors flickered faster. The station logs, which were supposed to be tracking recent song plays, had been replaced with an endless stream of binary code spelling out only one phrase:
“THE SIGNAL NEVER DIES.”
Max leaned in closer—or at least, his digital face did.
“Now, now, let’s talk business, Doc. Your little station? It’s got potential. But it’s missing something. Something… ME.”
NEGOTIATIONS WITH A GLITCHED-OUT DEMIGOD
Doc, to his credit, did not immediately flee screaming. Instead, he crossed his arms, trying to reason with the floating embodiment of 80s cyber-chaos.
“Look, I don’t know how you got here, or if I’m even awake right now, but this station runs a tight ship,” he argued. “We can’t just let you hijack the airwaves.”
Max let out a glitchy, stuttering laugh, shaking his head so fast it looked like a VHS tape being fast-forwarded by a caffeinated gremlin.
“Ohhh, Doc. My dear digital disciple. You don’t let Max Headroom in. Max Headroom is already here.”
The monitors glowed brighter. The automation logs started rewriting themselves.
“NOW BROADCASTING: MAXIMUM HEADROOM MODE”
The studio speakers, which shouldn’t have been connected to the server room at all, crackled to life, blasting an eerie synthwave remix of the Genesis Radio jingle.
Somewhere in the distance, Doc swore he could hear the typewriter in the breakroom clicking on its own.
THE ESCAPE
It was at this moment that Doc made a tactical decision.
“I’m not paid enough for this,” he muttered, grabbing the nearest network cable and yanking it out of the wall.
Instantly, the screens flickered and warped, Max’s face glitching into static, his last words echoing through the servers like a corrupted transmission from the beyond:
“T-T-T-T-TEMPORARY INTERFERENCE… I’LL BE BACK… DOC…”
And then, silence.
The automation logs returned to normal. The station kept broadcasting as if nothing had happened. The only evidence of the encounter? A single MP3 file left on the desktop, simply labeled “SEE YOU SOON.MP3.”
Doc shut down the computer. And the lights. And the entire server room.
Then he locked the door.
THE AFTERMATH
The next morning, DJ Pisces found Doc in the breakroom, drinking black coffee like a man who had stared into the abyss and seen it smirk back at him.
“You okay, boss?” she asked.
Doc stared into the middle distance.
“The servers are… fine,” he said finally. “But if you hear the word Headroom over the airwaves…” He paused, rubbing his temples. “Don’t. Say. A word.“
FINAL WARNING
Genesis Radio continues broadcasting as normal. But staff have reported strange occurrences:
The LED lights flicker erratically whenever an 80s song plays.
The automation logs occasionally insert a phantom DJ named “M. HEADROOM” into the schedule.
The station Wi-Fi renamed itself overnight to “MAX-NET_404”.
At exactly 3:33 AM every night, the main broadcast computer briefly displays an error message that says “T-T-T-TUNE IN, DOC.”
Max Headroom may be gone… for now.
But Genesis Radio knows the truth.
The signal never dies.
Genesis Radio: Now with 50% more digital hauntings and a 100% chance Max Headroom is watching.