What To Know
- A U.K. radio station mistakenly broadcast pre-recorded announcements falsely claiming King Charles III had died.
- The incident occurred after a curious staffer played the files during studio maintenance.
- King Charles announced his cancer diagnosis in February 2024 and has been undergoing treatment.
A U.K. radio station has been reprimanded by media regulator Ofcom after mistakenly broadcasting a pre-recorded announcement falsely claiming that King Charles III had died.
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) has released its report on the incident that occurred on Radio Caroline on May 19 during The Barry Marsh Show. The regulator said it received two complaints about the situation, in which regular programming was interrupted by three pre-recorded statements claiming that King Charles (77) had died.
According to the Ofcom report, the third statement said that “news media” had confirmed the passing of King Charles. The U.K.’s national anthem then played, followed by one of the statements being repeated. This was followed by about 16 minutes of dead air.
Regular programming then resumed, with the host apologizing to listeners. “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 apologize,” the host said.
Radio Caroline explained how the situation happened, noting that the host was streaming his show from a remote location. At the same time, a staffer was performing maintenance on a studio computer when they came across the files prepared for King Charles’ death.
“These files are accompanied with ‘a set of strict instructions to presenters and managers’ to follow before being aired, but, out of curiosity, the member of staff played the files, which stopped the stream from the presenter’s remote location, and broadcast the files on air,” the station said.
After the staffer realized what had happened, they stopped playing the files and, in a panic, left the building. Meanwhile, the show’s host was on a call and hadn’t noticed that the messages had mistakenly aired. Once the host realized, he contacted a station engineer, who confirmed they were investigating the situation.
Ofcom said the station breached two rules under the Broadcasting Code, including “News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality” and “Significant mistakes in news should normally be acknowledged and corrected on air quickly.”
Radio Caroline added that they “took the matter very seriously, and much activity was taking place during those 30 minutes leading up to the apology.” They also noted that the staffer who played the files was “reprimanded” and has “since apologized.”
King Charles revealed his cancer diagnosis in February 2024 and has been undergoing treatment. In December 2025, the monarch shared an update, saying, “Thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’ orders’, my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the new year.”
The type of cancer has not been identified, but King Charles added, “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.”