I think another big part of the "appeal" or notability comes from the fact that there were so few gatekeepers for information on par with TV and radio stations.

I think another big part of the "appeal" or notability comes from the fact that there were so few gatekeepers for information on par with TV and radio stations. Nowadays you could probably get some attention, both positive and negative, from defacing the website of a huge company. Maybe if you got "Facebook" to show up as "Fuckbook" for thousands of users for 10-15 minutes or something. Otherwise, there are so many websites and we are so accustomed to having access to a sort of mass communication that the rarity and impact is diminished. I remember being a kid in the 80's and a teen in the 90's and even then, I was blown away when I learned what public access TV was. The idea that you could actually get on TV!! as a normal person and run a show seemed insane. TV was that thing that talked at you. There were 13 channels for us frugal or less well-off families and there were maybe 50 or 60 for our luckier friends. Other than that, it was something out of reach. We played with camcorders and tape decks, playing at being radio DJs or TV personalities but the idea of something like a Shoutcast station in the late 90's or a Youtube channel in the 2000's would have fried my tiny brain as a hyperactive, creative little kid. So not only was someone subverting the technical systems of a big company but they were doing it to TV. At least to me, that was one of those larger than life things that took place elsewhere and the rest of us just watched. Co-opting a TV broadcast was like getting the policeman's mythical "master key" or sneaking into the White House.