Radio worker announced King Charles’ death ‘out of curiosity’, watchdog finds

A radio station worker who mistakenly announced the death of King Charles III did so out of curiosity, the UK’s media watchdog has said.

The radio station in Essex was found to have been in breach of broadcasting rules following the blunder in May. It took the station 30 minutes to issue an apology and a clarification.

The broadcast was played during the Barry Marsh Show and said: “This is Radio Caroline. We have suspended our normal programmes until further notice as a mark of formal respect following the passing of his Majesty King Charles III.

“This is Radio Caroline. His Majesty King Charles III has passed away. As a mark of respect we will now be playing suitable continuous music until further notice.

“The news media has confirmed that his Majesty King Charles III has passed away. Consequently as a mark of respect, Radio Caroline is suspending its normal programmes.”

God Save The King, the UK national anthem, was then played.

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The mistake happened when a worker played pre-recorded sound files out of curiosity, the UK’s telecommunications regulator Ofcom found following an investigation. Two complaints had been made about the broadcast.

The staffer was carrying out maintenance on a studio computer and accessed the files, unaware it would lead to them being broadcast live, it said.

Once they realised the mistake the worker stopped the files, “panicked and left the premises”.

A presenter later apologised for the error following 16 minutes of silence.

“I’ve just been informed that we’ve played in error some information a little earlier,” the presenter said.

“I didn’t hear this myself, but it is incorrect, it’s a technical issue, and of course we apologise.”

At the time King Charles, who is still having regular treatment for cancer, was in Northern Ireland with Queen Camilla for their annual visit to the country. He was later seen in good spirits meeting with crowds.

In a statement, the regulator said: “We considered this to have been a very significant inaccuracy about an issue of particular public importance”.

“As outlined above, Radio Caroline did not broadcast an apology and clarification until approximately 30 minutes after the inaccurate announcements were first broadcast.

“We noted that the licensee was monitoring the output around the time of the incident and that an engineer was already aware of the issue, but that it took some time to understand what had occurred and reinstate the scheduled programme, with that being exacerbated by the circumstances of the presenter streaming the programme remotely.”

In response to Ofcom’s findings, Radio Caroline said it “took the matter very seriously” and had acted “as soon as possible”.

The staffer who had mistakenly played the files had apologised and had been reprimanded.

To prevent the blunder from happening again, the files have since been removed from the studio computer.