Radio station sorry after mistakenly announcing death of King Charles

LONDON: A former British pirate radio station on Wednesday apologised “for any distress caused” after accidentally announcing the death of King Charles III.

The erroneous announcement was made on Tuesday afternoon due to a computer error at its main studio in Maldon in eastern Essex, Radio Caroline said in a post on social media.

The error had triggered the so-called death of a monarch procedure “which all UK stations hold in readiness while hoping not to require”, wrote station manager Peter Moore.

“Radio Caroline then fell silent as would be required, which alerted us to restore programming and issue an on-air apology,” he said on Facebook post.

“Caroline has been pleased to broadcast Her Majesty the Queen’s and now the King’s, Christmas message and we hope to do so for many years to come,” he said, referring to the monarch’s traditional Christmas Day message to the nation.

“We apologise to HM (his majesty) the king and to our listeners for any distress caused,” Moore added.

The mishap on Tuesday came as Charles and Queen Camilla were in Northern Ireland, where they joined a performance with an Irish folk group.

The post did not say how long it was before the mistake was discovered, but the domestic Press Association news agency reported that on Wednesday afternoon, playback for Tuesday’s broadcast between 1:58 pm and 5:00 pm was unavailable on the station’s website.

Established in 1964 to challenge the BBC’s broadcasting monopoly, Radio Caroline previously operated from ships off the English coast.

After legislation in 1967 forced many pirate broadcasters to close, it continued intermittently before ending offshore broadcasts in 1990.

Caroline and other similar pirate stations inspired the 2009 comedy film “The Boat that Rocked” starring Bill Nighy and Philip Seymour Hoffman about a group of eccentric DJs living and working together at sea.