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Essex radio station staff member who accidentally broadcasted King Charles' death "panicked and left the premises"

A radio staff member 'panicked and left' after the radio station accidentally announced the death of King Charles III, which wasn't true

[JOHN O'GROATS, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 1: King Charles III attends the 2026 Mey Highland Games at John O'Groats Showground on August 01, 2026 in John O'Groats, Scotland. (Photo by Martin Grimes/Getty Images)]

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(Image: Martin Grimes, Getty Images)

An Essex-based radio station has been found in breach of Ofcom regulations after mistakenly broadcasting that the King had died.

Radio Caroline issued an apology in May following the incident on The Barry Marsh Show, during which messages were aired stating "we have suspended our normal programmes until further notice as a mark of respect following the passing of His Majesty King Charles III".

The announcement was accompanied by the national anthem and approximately 16 minutes of silence before the presenter corrected the mistake.

He said: "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."

According to an Ofcom ruling, a staff member conducting maintenance on the studio computer accessed pre-recorded audio files and played them out of curiosity, unaware the content would be transmitted live on air.

After realising their error, they stopped the files and "panicked and left the premises".

The broadcasting watchdog confirmed it had received two complaints regarding the transmission, finding violations of rule 5.1, which mandates news must be reported with accuracy and impartiality, and rule 5.2, which requires swift on-air acknowledgement and correction of news errors.

An Ofcom statement said: "We considered this to have been a very significant inaccuracy about an issue of particular public importance.

"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."

The station revealed that the files containing the messages had been accompanied by "a set of strict instructions to presenters and managers" prior to broadcast, but that a curious staff member had aired them without authorisation.

Radio Caroline insisted they "took the matter very seriously", and had acted "as soon as possible" upon becoming aware of the situation.

The station confirmed the staff member responsible had been "reprimanded" and had "apologised", and that to prevent any repeat of the incident, Radio Caroline had removed the relevant files from the desktop on the studio computer.

Furthermore, the station confirmed that all presenters and support staff had been reminded of the correct procedures going forward.

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