LONDON: Prominent British radio station Radio Caroline has apologised after mistakenly broadcasting the death of King Charles III due to a computer malfunction.
The station said a technical fault automatically triggered the emergency broadcast protocol reserved for the death of a British monarch. The error also caused the station to temporarily go off air.
In a statement posted on social media, Radio Caroline said the false announcement aired on Tuesday afternoon from its main studio in Maldon, Essex, following a computer system failure.
Station manager Peter Moore said the malfunction activated a special procedure that British broadcasters keep prepared for the death of a king or queen, although they hope it never needs to be used.
He said the station’s transmissions were temporarily suspended once the protocol was triggered, alerting staff to the issue. Broadcasts later resumed and an on-air apology was issued.
Moore said Radio Caroline had previously broadcast Christmas messages from Queen Elizabeth II and now from King Charles III, adding that the station hoped to continue the tradition in the future.
“We apologise to His Majesty and our listeners for the distress caused by this mistake,” he said.
The incident occurred while King Charles and Queen Camilla were visiting Northern Ireland, where they attended a performance by an Irish folk music group.
According to the British news agency Press Association, broadcasts from the station’s website between around 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Tuesday were later unavailable. However, it remains unclear how long the false announcement stayed on air before it was detected.
Radio Caroline was founded in 1964 to challenge the broadcasting monopoly of BBC. The station initially transmitted from ships anchored off the British coast. Many pirate radio stations shut down after legislation in 1967, but Radio Caroline continued broadcasting intermittently until its offshore operations ended in 1990.
