A radio station worker who mistakenly announced the death of King Charles did it out of curiosity, according to an investigation by UK’s media watchdog.
The blunder happened in May on Radio Caroline, a station broadcasting in Essex, when pre-recorded files falsely announcing the King’s death were played live.
The broadcast interrupted the Barry Marsh Show with the announcement: “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 was then played.
The UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom investigated the incident after receiving two complaints, and found that the station had breached broadcasting rules.
According to the investigation, a staff member was carrying out maintenance on a studio computer when they accessed the pre-recorded files “out of curiosity”.
The worker was unaware that opening the files would cause them to be broadcast live.
Once they realised what had happened, the worker stopped the files, “panicked and left the premises”.
The station then spent about 30 minutes dealing with the error before issuing an apology and clarification.
A presenter later addressed listeners 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.”
Ofcom said the incident was particularly serious because it involved a false report about the death of the King.
“We considered this to have been a very significant inaccuracy about an issue of particular public importance,” the regulator said.
“As outlined above, Radio Caroline did not broadcast an apology and clarification until approximately 30 minutes after the inaccurate announcements were first broadcast.”
Ofcom also noted that the station was monitoring its output at the time, but it took staff some time to understand what had happened and restore the scheduled programme.
At the time of the broadcast, King Charles was in Northern Ireland with Queen Camilla for an official visit.
Radio Caroline said it “took the matter very seriously” and had acted “as soon as possible”.
The staff member responsible apologised and was reprimanded, while the files have since been removed from the studio computer to prevent a similar mistake from happening again.
Image: Frederic Legrand – COMEO / Shutterstock.com
