UK Radio Station Apologises After Acc!dentally Announcing D£ath Of King Charles

UK Radio Station Apologises After Accidentally Announcing Death Of King Charles

According to a report by The Guardian, the false announcement was aired on Tuesday afternoon from the station’s main studio in Essex, England.

AUnited Kingdom-based radio station, Radio Caroline, has apologised after mistakenly announcing the death of King Charles III due to what it described as a computer error.

According to a report by The Guardian, the false announcement was aired on Tuesday afternoon from the station’s main studio in Essex, England.

The station’s manager, Peter Moore, disclosed the incident in a Facebook post, explaining that an emergency protocol prepared for the eventual death of a monarch was mistakenly activated.

“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 on Tuesday afternoon (19 May), mistakenly announcing that HM the King had passed away,” Moore wrote.

“Radio Caroline then fell silent as would be required, which alerted us to restore programming and issue an on-air apology.”

He added that the station regretted the incident and apologised to both the monarch and listeners.

“Caroline has been pleased to broadcast Her Majesty the Queen’s, and now the king’s, Christmas message and we hope to do so for many years to come,” he said.

“We apologise to HM the king and to our listeners for any distress caused.”

The report noted that the station did not disclose how long the erroneous announcement remained on air before it was detected and corrected.

However, playback for Tuesday’s broadcast between 1:58 p.m. and 5 p.m. was reportedly unavailable on the station’s website as of Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred while King Charles and Queen Camilla were visiting Northern Ireland.

The royal couple reportedly joined a folk music performance and visited Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, where they watched dancers and sampled Irish whiskey.

Radio Caroline, established in 1964, was originally a pirate radio station operating from ships off the English coast.

The station continued broadcasting intermittently after anti-pirate broadcasting laws were introduced in 1967 before finally ending offshore operations in 1990.

The Guardian noted that Radio Caroline and other pirate radio stations later inspired the 2009 comedy film The Boat That Rocked starring Bill Nighy and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Meanwhile, the BBC also apologised this week over a separate broadcast error involving a radio programme hosted by Elaine Paige.

Listeners to her Radio 2 show reportedly heard a repeat of the previous week’s programme because of a scheduling mistake.

“Unfortunately, due to a scheduling error, the incorrect second hour of the show was broadcast yesterday,” a BBC spokesperson said.

“We apologise to listeners and are currently looking into how this occurred.

“The correct programme is now available on BBC Sounds.”

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/may/20/uk-radio-station-apologises-for-accidentally-announcing-kings-death