The British public was briefly left in shock on May 19, 2026, during The Barry Marsh Show, when a U.K. radio station mistakenly announced that King Charles had died.
It was a pre-recorded protocol put in place in an event when it occurred and they were asked to broadcast the news immediately, after the greenlight from the Palace.
The message had said that “we have suspended our normal programmes until further notice as a mark of respect following the passing of His Majesty King Charles III”. It was followed by the national anthem and 16 minutes of silence.
The broadcaster after realising what had happened, apologised for the blunder.
“I’ve just been informed that we’ve played in error some information a little earlier. I didn’t hear this myself, but it is incorrect, it’s a technical issue, and of course we apologise.”
Now, new details have come forth about how the error happened as Radio Caroline has been found in breach Ofcom (the government-approved regulatory body) rules.
According to the ruling, a member of staff carrying out maintenance on the studio computer accessed the pre-recorded sound files and played them “out of curiosity”, unaware it would be broadcasted live.
Once they realised what had happened, they stopped the files and “panicked and left the premises”.
The radio station said that the staff member had been “reprimanded” and had “apologised”. Moreover, the files have been removed from the studio PC.
The Ofcom statement for ‘inaccurate’ news of King Charles death
On Monday, the government body released its verdict.
“We considered this to have been a very significant inaccuracy about an issue of particular public importance,” an Ofcom statement read.
““As outlined above, Radio Caroline did not broadcast an apology and clarification until approximately 30 minutes after the inaccurate announcements were first broadcast.”
“We noted that the Licensee was monitoring the output around the time of the incident and that an engineer was already aware of the issue, but that it took some time to understand what had occurred and reinstate the scheduled programme, with that being exacerbated by the circumstances of the presenter streaming the programme remotely.”