A UK radio station has apologised after mistakenly broadcasting a false announcement claiming that King Charles III had died following what it described as a computer error.
The incident reportedly happened on Tuesday afternoon at Radio Caroline’s main studio in Essex, England, briefly triggering emergency broadcast procedures reserved for the death of a reigning monarch.
According to a report by The Guardian, the station’s manager, Peter Moore, confirmed that a pre-prepared “Death of a Monarch” protocol was accidentally activated during regular programming.
“Due to a computer error at our main studio, the Death of a Monarch procedure, which all UK stations hold in readiness while hoping not to require, was accidentally activated,” Moore said in a Facebook post.
The false announcement was reportedly followed by silence on the station, which is part of the standard procedure expected during official royal death broadcasts.
Moore explained that the sudden silence alerted station officials to the mistake, prompting them to quickly restore programming and issue an on-air apology.
“We apologise to HM the king and to our listeners for any distress caused,” he added, while expressing hope that the station would continue broadcasting the monarch’s Christmas messages for years to come.
Radio Caroline did not reveal exactly how long the false announcement remained on air before it was corrected.
However, reports indicated that playback recordings covering part of Tuesday’s afternoon broadcast were unavailable on the station’s website as of Wednesday.
The incident occurred while King Charles and Queen Camilla were on an official visit to Northern Ireland, where they attended cultural events, watched traditional dance performances and sampled Irish whiskey in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.
Radio Caroline, founded in 1964, gained fame as one of Britain’s best-known pirate radio stations, originally broadcasting from ships positioned off the English coastline before ending offshore operations in 1990.
The station’s history later inspired the 2009 film The Boat That Rocked, starring Bill Nighy and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Meanwhile, the BBC also issued a separate apology this week after a scheduling error caused listeners of broadcaster Elaine Paige to hear a repeat episode instead of a new programme on Radio 2.
