A British radio station was forced into an embarrassing apology after listeners were accidentally told that King Charles had died — even though the monarch was very much alive and carrying out royal duties.
The shocking mistake happened Tuesday afternoon at Radio Caroline’s main studio in Essex, where a computer error reportedly triggered the station’s “Death of a Monarch” procedure.
That emergency protocol, which UK broadcasters keep ready in case of a royal death, mistakenly went live and announced that His Majesty had passed away.
The station then went silent, as it would during an actual royal death announcement, before staff realized something had gone badly wrong.
Station manager Peter Moore later issued a public apology on Facebook, saying the announcement had been activated by mistake.
“Due to a computer error at our main studio, the Death of a Monarch procedure, which all UK stations hold in readiness while hoping not to require, was accidentally activated on Tuesday afternoon,” Moore wrote.
He said the error “mistakenly” announced that King Charles had died, prompting the station to fall silent.
That silence quickly alerted staff, who restored normal programming and apologized on air.
“We apologise to HM the king and to our listeners for any distress caused,” Moore added.
The awkward broadcast came while King Charles, 77, and Queen Camilla, 78, were in Northern Ireland for an official visit.
Far from the grim announcement heard by some radio listeners, the royal couple was seen enjoying public events in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.
Charles and Camilla watched dancers, joined a performance with a folk group and even sipped Irish whiskey during the first day of their trip.
Radio Caroline did not say exactly how long the false announcement stayed on air before the mistake was caught.
However, by Wednesday afternoon, playback from part of Tuesday’s broadcast was unavailable on the station’s website.
Radio Caroline has been around since 1964 and is famous for its rebel roots as a former pirate radio station.
It originally broadcast from ships off the English coast and continued operating even after new laws in 1967 forced many pirate stations to shut down.
The station’s colorful history helped inspire the 2009 comedy The Boat That Rocked, starring Bill Nighy and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
But this week, it made headlines for a very different reason — a royal death announcement that should never have aired.
The royal radio blunder came just as the BBC was dealing with its own embarrassing audio mistake.
On Tuesday, the broadcaster apologized after listeners to Elaine Paige’s Radio 2 show accidentally heard part of the previous week’s episode instead of the correct program.
A BBC spokeswoman blamed the issue on a scheduling error and said the correct version was later made available on BBC Sounds.
Still, Radio Caroline’s mistake was far more alarming — briefly making listeners believe Britain’s king had died when he was actually alive, well and working.
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