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The WKCR Hijacking Incident

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Unsolved mysteries and the unexplainable are awesome. It's just so fascinating to see how we as humans deal with the unknown. While scrolling through my YouTube feed, I came across a video that picked my interest. The video was from Nexpo, known to explore the internet's dark side. At a certain point in the video (8:46), Nexpo mentioned a phenomenon that I later searched and linked to this other video, titled "the old tape." An incredibly odd recording, which later came to be known as the WKCR hijacking incident.


The Original Story

Unlike Nexpo's video, this mystery was way older and didn't have as many material and evidence we could work with, hence there were far more speculations as there was less evidence. Naturally wanting to find out more about it, I started to dig a little deeper.


According to multiple sources, the recording first appeared on 4chan's paranormal message board. The poster wrote the following:

Back in 1994/1995 when I recorded this off of the radio, I told myself I'd never make a copy of the tape, (having freaked myself out) but it's been sitting in the back of a desk drawer and in the back of my mind for 16 years now, and now I'm just curious.

http://picosong.com/nVEq

The weird stuff starts about 16 seconds in.

Around 1995, I was about 15. I used to stay up late in my room listening to the radio on a boombox with an integrated tape recorder. I'd dial through the stations, and when I heard something interesting I'd hit record for a while, then move on.

One night, I came across this. I don't think this was the beginning of the broadcast, but I caught a lot of it. Right at the end, an announcer says that the station I was tuned to was WKCR 89.9 New York. There are a bunch of names and dates in there, but...I've never run into anything else like this.

While both this 4chan post as well as picosong.com are no longer available today, you can still take a look through the Wayback Machine here and here.

The Recording

The recording was said to be a broadcast signal intrustion and lasted around 5 minutes. Although not entirely sure, Nexpo stated that "The overarching consensus for why that happened was simply chalked up to a prank by the station emcee over at Columbia University."
Maybe we could find some hints by analyzing the recording.

Below is one of the oldest pieces I could find on YouTube that's still available today. Listening to the following recording may give some people the creeps.

_This sent shivers down my spine ~ (•᷄- •᷅ ;)

The recording starts off with music__[1]__ playing before abruptly switching to an unknown classical-music piece__[2]__. After a couple of seconds (0:16) in, an eerie voice starts yammering over the classical piece, making the music barely noticeable but nonetheless still continuing in the background. From around 0:20 seconds in, heavy breathing gets mixed in the sound. The loud inhaling and exhaling sounds possibly came from an woman with unknown origin.

At around 2:50 into the video, we start to hear a woman - most likely the same woman - listing names of people, including family ties and dates. More on that later. The names mentioned are rapidly spoken and resembles the sound of a prayer and what seems to be the epitaph of several tombs__[3]__, among them that of Barry Valentino, a man who died in 1988, murdered in the Lockerbie terrorist bombing, according to multiple sources.
The sound gradually becomes more inaudible overtime as the voice, or voices, begin to whisper.
Nearly at the end of the video (5:19) a woman's voice, presumably a radio dj from WKCR New York 89.9 FM, states that the music was running a little late and that it would be starting again in a few minutes. We can pick up from this that the radio station didn't seem to realize the existence of the creepy sounds.
The recording later became known as the WKCR Incident because of this.

According to this source, a woman's voice is heard in a fast pace speaking of, which could possibly be snip-its of obituaries. At least one of the persons mentioned died in the Pan AM Flight 103 crash[4]. The loud reading eventually becomes whispers of more names and then gibberish.

Let's check if the names mentioned by the woman - as far as we can hear - overlap with the official list of victims__[4]__ of the Pan Am Flight Incident.

According to the user u/fromthetower on this post, one of the included names was Robert Oppenheimer__[6]__, credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb." This could also be Frank Oppenheimer, instead of Robert. A lot of people seem to confuse these 2. The latter one seems to be more heard, so I've included a direct link. an interesting development.

Although there are a lot of names and family-names, including dates,
I cannot gather much without filtering the voices from the recording itself. Luckily, I found a post__[7]__ that was written on oddthingsconsidered.com by a user called anitadalton. I've wrapped up the information and put the most important information filed in a list below.


WKCR Person Examination - by Anita Dalton

When I began, I used work done by or replicated by a blog called Silent Thrills as my launching point. I’ll put my work in bold under Silent Thrill’s interpretation in italics.


  • Frank Oppenheimer

February 1985 – Frank Oppenheimer, brother of Robert. Husband of Jackie, their father of Micheal, our friend.

This is close. Breaking it down, I heard a bit more and believe the whole of the entry is as follows:

February 1985 Frank Oppenheimer, brother of Robert, husband of Jackie and Mildred, father of Michael, our friend.

This one was easy because Frank Oppenheimer was famous. All I had to do was listen closely while checking the Wikipedia entry.


  • Irene DiTullio McElhoes

August 22nd 1985 [incoherent] Tulio. Sister of Millie, Margaret, Dominic and joe. Wife of William. Mother of Mary, Lisa and Billy.

My first few passes at this one yielded the following:

August 22, 1985 Irene McGills (McEllis) DeTullio (?), sister of (?), Margaret, (incoherent list of names that may include Tony and Joe) Mother of Mary.

The speaker mixed up Irene’s maiden and married names, which was a problem. But at some point I lucked out – a search on “Irene DeTullio” landed me on a genealogy site that had information on an “Irene DiTullio McElhoes.” Comparing the data, I concluded that the speaker got the name order wrong. From there I was able to pull out the following, with the maiden versus married name error corrected:

August 22, 1985, Irene DiTullio McElhoes, sister of (incoherent), Margaret, (incoherent), Tony, Ida, (incoherent), (incoherent), (incoherent), Alvera and Joe. Mother of Maryann

It speaks to how muffled the recording is that even with her entire family tree in front of me, I still could not determine which names fit into the incoherent spaces. But here’s a quick recount of Irene’s data:

  • Irene was born in Lawrence, NJ in 1907. She died on August 22, 1985 in Buckingham, PA and was buried in Trenton, NJ.
  • She married William McElhoes.
  • She had a single daughter, named Maryann.
  • Her siblings were named Joseph DiTullio, Genevieve Ida DiTullio Schnorbus, Adam DiTullio, Scotti DiTullio, Alvera Theresa DiTullio, and Margaret DiTullio.

It was dumb luck plus lots of spare time due to insomnia allowing me to finally land on the combination that would lead me to the correct spelling and order of Irene’s name. “McElhoes” is pronounced almost identically to “McEllis” but is such an uncommon spelling that I never would have thought to search on the correct form of the name. This will not be the sole time dumb luck aided in my searches. Also, the McElhoes family will come up again, which makes me feel like this family may be key in uncovering the identity of the person behind the tape or a common link between all these names.


  • Peter (last name not deciphered.

July 4th 1987 Peter Dunwell, Son of Robert, Husband of Lisa

Was able to pull out the following:

July 4, 1987 Peter (Fenwell, Dunwell?), son of Robert (something) Kay, brother of Bob, Karen, Cindy and Mary, husband of Lisa, father of (?) Rick and Lucy (my father-in-law?)

Even with a complete date of death, a first name, sibling names, and partial names of children, I cannot find anything online that definitely decodes the names here. Which sucks because I really feel like the speaker in the tape has said that Peter is her father-in-law. I sense his last name is another “McElhoes” sort of name wherein it’s unusual enough that it spoils attempts to decode it using anticipated spelling.


  • Edward McElhoes

March 17th 1988, Edward McEllis (McNellis?) [Incoherent] Edward’s brother. William, June, Peggy father of Julie.

Hohoho! This one was easier to decipher given my discovery of the spelling of “McElhoes” above. I was immediately able to find him on the McElhoes family tree and was able to suss out the incoherent parts above.

March 17, 1988 Edward McElhoes, brother of William, June, Mary and Peggy, father of Shirley, Allie and Geraldine

  • The genealogy site confirmed the death date of March 17, 1988. Edward was born on April 30, 1912.
  • He was born and died in New Jersey.
  • His siblings were William J McElhoes, James F McElhoes, Mary C McElhoes, Edward McElhoes, and Margaret McElhoes. Peggy is a nickname for Margaret and I suspect I misheard James as “June.”
  • He was married to a woman named Evelene Snyder, and together they had a daughter named Albina, who is represented in the recording as “Allie.”
  • He was later married to a woman named Ethel Tilton, and together they had a daughter named Shirley.
  • I cannot find anything about a Geraldine and that assumes that my guess regarding the name is correct.

Edward’s brother William was Irene DiTullio McElhoes’ husband.


  • Ruth or Rupert

April 1988 Rupert [incoherent]

I cannot decipher anything clearly except for the date. In fact, it’s so muddy that I couldn’t even use natural spaces of speech to narrow down how many words were in this part of the recording.


  • Marvin TenEyck

October 1988 Morgan (Tunic?) father of Barbara, Husband of Elsie. Barbara’s dad.

My first few passes yielded the same as above except I heard “Marvin” rather than “Morgan.”

October 1988 Marvin (Tunic?) father of Barbara, Husband of Elsie. Barbara’s dad.

This name was similar to “McElhoes” in that I would never have considered TenEyck until an Ancestry search on “Marvin Tunic” brought up results for a man named Willis Teneyck. Here are the pros and cons of considering that this section is referencing a man named Willis Teneyck, who spent most of his life in Wisconsin.

  • Willis Teneyck married a woman named Elsie Mueller, who also lived in Wisconsin.
  • Willis and Elsie had a daughter called Barbara.
  • It’s weird that the speaker lists Barbara as his daughter but then also mentions Willis is “Barbara’s dad.” She’s already said Willis was the father of Barbara – why the repetition of the relationship at the end of the entry?
  • Willis and Elsie had two daughters, Barbara and Lona May. Why would Lona May not be included in the names of their children. This sort of points to the idea that the speaker on the tape is relying on potentially faulty personal remembrances.
  • Willis died on August 12, 1986.
  • There indeed was at least one 20th century Morgan Teneyck but he died in 1969.

This one is up in the air but data for “Morgan” and “Marvin” Teneyck yielded family connections and dates that miss the mark more than Willis.


  • John Byrnes

November 1988 John Byrne (Burn?) Son of John, brother of Catherine and Chris.

This is what I heard:

November 1988, John Friend/Friends, son of John Sr and Marilyn, brother of Cathy and Chris (…) and Billy

I believe that the name indicated here is John Byrnes. Here’s why:

  • John Byrnes’ father was John Byrnes and his mother was named Marilyn.
  • He had two sisters named Kathleen and Christine.

There are some issues with this information, because I cannot find anything about a “Billy” and cannot determine what was said just before Billy’s name. Also John Byrnes died in October of 1988. I also believe that I heard “Kathy/Cathy” and that Kathy’s full name was Kathleen, not Catherine.


  • Barry Valentino

December 21st 1988 Barry Valentino, son of Barry Senior, brother of Scott, Mark and Lisa. And his friend, my friend.

My reading of this was almost identical, and I’m not sure what exactly “his friend, my friend” is meant to indicate. However, the facts are identical and easy to find online because Barry Valentino was killed in the PanAm 103 flight that was shot down over Lockerbie, Scotland.

  • Henrietta Graham

May 1987 Henrietta Graham, Mother of [incoherent] my friend

My interpretation is the same. I searched on variations and homophones for “Graham” — Grahame, Graeme, Gram, Grant, Grantham and others and cannot find anything that could be a Henrietta Graham who died in May of 1987.

And that’s where it stands for now. When I have time, I’d like to double check the locations of these death to see if there is some geographical element that links these names. I’d also like to find all their jobs and causes of death to see if there are any links there.

I have ran the recording through an audio spectrum but it showed nothing out of the ordinary, or at least not that I'm aware of. I don't have much experience with these..

Audio spectrogram of "the old tape."

Opinions and Speculations

There have been speculations on if the recording was actually genuine, faked or a prank by the radio station itself as some pointed out the woman's voice reading the names and the host both sound similar and that the recording sounds too modern for it's time.

Someone said the following under another video__[5]__ with a partial recording:

We can assume that this part is true, as the original song that played before the 'hijack' commenced, was found__[1]. Comparing the first audio part and the second with the violins[5]__, they don't seem to line up. The violin part seems to continue in the background of the audio as well.

There are a couple of threads and mentions on the internet, Reddit included. This is just one of them, but a lot of them all go into the same direction, claiming it was most likely a joke pulled by someone - be it the radio hosts or an outsider - while no one could ever confirm their claims.

WKCR hijacking from UnresolvedMysteries

The last one comes from a user in the replies under the blogpost with the list of names heard__[7].__ I personally tend to lean towards a theory like this, as it would be explainable, yet still be a complete mystery.

So, was it worthwhile?

It's sad to say that with all the information we collected thus far, it doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile yet. No further evidence has ever been found to support the theory(s) and not even one other person heard this recording before. The recording traces back as early as 2013 (at least on YouTube) and some people say it was close to being proven that it was just people on 4chan fucking around. Furthermore, the quality of that ghostly breathing is oddly sharp for a recording of 1994/1995. I cannot imagine some common recording in 1995 had this kind of quality, but it is still not proven that it could not be true.
Nonetheless and however we speculate, we cannot say for sure what is the truth or not. But I did enjoy writing this article and researching this topic. I've read some interesting things and for that reason alone, I think it is worthwhile. :)

Thank you for reading. ✨

Sources

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