King Charles Falsely Declared Dead After Radio Mistake

A community radio station breached broadcasting rules after it mistakenly announced the death of King Charles III during a May broadcast, the UK regulator Ofcom said on Monday.

Radio Caroline, a station that is best known today for rock music after its earlier pirate broadcasts, said it had apologised in May after messages were aired falsely stating that the monarch had died.

In one of the messages, the station said it had “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 then played, followed by about 16 minutes of silence before the station returned to its regular schedule.

Ofcom cites delays in correcting the error

The presenter apologised around 30 minutes after the messages were first broadcast, Ofcom said.

The regulator received two complaints about the incident and concluded the “very significant inaccuracy”, as well as the “considerable length of time” taken to acknowledge and correct the mistake, meant Radio Caroline breached two rules.

One rule requires news and information to be accurate and presented with due impartiality. A second rule says significant mistakes must be acknowledged and corrected on air promptly.

How the files were triggered during remote streaming

In a statement to Ofcom, Radio Caroline said the error happened when a member of staff accessed pre-recorded audio files prepared for the monarch’s death while carrying out maintenance on the studio computer.

The station said the programme was being streamed remotely at the time. It added that the member of staff played the files “out of curiosity”, and that this action stopped the stream from the presenter’s remote location and instead broadcast the pre-recorded material over the station’s output.

The member of staff then reportedly “panicked and left the premises” once they realised what had occurred, according to Ofcom’s account of the station’s explanation.

Radio Caroline told the regulator that the remote presenter would not know the station had gone “off air” unless they were monitoring their output using an internet monitor. It said the presenter believed they were still live and was not actively checking their phone, meaning they did not immediately respond to calls from people at the station who had noticed the problem.

Station reprimanded staff and removed recordings

Radio Caroline said the person who played the pre-recorded files had been “reprimanded” and had “apologised” over the incident. The station also told Ofcom that the pre-recorded files had since been removed from the studio computer.

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11 August 2026