A British radio station, Radio Caroline, has been found to have breached broadcasting rules after it mistakenly announced the death of King Charles III.
The station aired three pre-recorded announcements falsely stating that the King had died during the Barry Marsh Show on May 19, 2026.
The announcements claimed that the news media had confirmed the monarch’s death and were followed by the playing of the national anthem and about 16 minutes of silence on the station’s DAB+ service, while AM listeners heard backup music.
A correction and apology were broadcast about 30 minutes later.
The UK broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, ruled that the incident breached Rule 5.1, which requires news to be reported with due accuracy, and Rule 5.2, which requires significant mistakes to be corrected quickly.
Ofcom described the false announcement as a “very significant inaccuracy” involving a matter of “very high public interest”.
According to the regulator, the incident occurred when a staff member carrying out maintenance at the station accessed pre-recorded obituary files prepared for use in the event of the King’s death.
The files were reportedly played “out of curiosity”, inadvertently cutting off the presenter’s remote programme and putting the pre-recorded announcements on air.
Once the staff member realised what had happened, the files were stopped, but Ofcom said the individual “panicked and left the premises”.
The presenter, who was broadcasting remotely, was reportedly unaware that the programme had been interrupted because he was not monitoring the station’s output through an internet monitor.
The station director also did not immediately realise what had happened because he was on a telephone call. He became aware of the problem after hearing continuous music instead of the scheduled programme.
An apology was subsequently broadcast, with the presenter explaining that the earlier information was incorrect and attributing the incident to a technical problem.
Radio Caroline said it took the incident seriously and acted as soon as possible. The staff member involved was reprimanded, while the obituary files were subsequently removed from the studio desktop to prevent a recurrence.
The station also noted that Ofcom received only two complaints about the broadcast and stressed that Radio Caroline is a 100 per cent volunteer-led broadcaster operating with significantly fewer resources than larger UK radio stations.
Radio Caroline, which was established in 1964 as an offshore pirate radio station, continued broadcasting from a ship until 1991. It is now based off the north-east Essex coast, with many of its presenters broadcasting remotely.
The incident occurred while King Charles and Queen Camilla were visiting Northern Ireland.
The King remains alive and continues to carry out his official duties.
