UK Radio Station Fined After Accidentally Announcing King Charles’ Death

A community radio station in the United Kingdom breached broadcasting rules after accidentally announcing the death of King Charles III during a May broadcast, the UK media regulator, Ofcom, said on Monday.

Radio Caroline, a former pirate radio station that now mainly broadcasts rock music, apologised in May after mistakenly airing messages announcing the monarch’s death.

One of the messages stated, “We have suspended our normal programmes until further notice as a mark of respect following the passing of His Majesty King Charles III.”

The national anthem was subsequently played, followed by about 16 minutes of silence before the station resumed its regular programming.

According to Ofcom, the presenter apologised about 30 minutes after the messages were initially triggered.

The regulator, which received two complaints about the broadcast, said the “very significant inaccuracy” and the “considerable length of time” taken to acknowledge the error breached two of its broadcasting rules.

One of the rules requires news reports to be accurate and impartial, while the other requires broadcasters to promptly acknowledge and correct significant on-air mistakes.

Radio Caroline told Ofcom that the incident occurred when a member of staff accessed sound files that had been pre-recorded for use in the event of the monarch’s death while carrying out maintenance on a studio computer.

Maintenance was being conducted while the programme was being streamed remotely.

According to the station, the staff member played the files “out of curiosity”, causing the presenter’s remote stream to stop and the pre-recorded messages to be broadcast on air.

The staff member reportedly “panicked and left the premises” after realising what had happened.

Radio Caroline said the remote presenter would not have realised that the programme had gone off air unless they were monitoring the station’s output through an internet monitor.

The presenter, who believed they were still broadcasting, was not actively monitoring their phone and therefore did not immediately respond to calls from people at the station who had noticed the error.

The station told Ofcom that the staff member responsible had been reprimanded and had apologised.

Radio Caroline also said the pre-recorded files announcing the monarch’s death had since been removed from the studio computer.