Radio Station Mistakenly Announces King's Death

Listeners of a station in England got a jolt this week when an industry-wide protocol kicked in by mistake. Radio Caroline in Essex says a technical glitch on Tuesday triggered its preset "death of a monarch" procedure, prompting an on-air announcement that King Charles III had died. He had not. Station manager Peter Moore posted on Facebook that a computer error at the main studio activated the system, which all UK broadcasters maintain to use when a monarch truly has died, Belfast Live reports. The station then went silent, as the protocol dictates, before staff realized what had happened, restored regular programming, and apologized on air.

Radio Caroline was living up to its outlaw roots: It began operating from ships off the English coast in 1964 to challenge the BBC's monopoly, per Euronews. At the time of the false announcement, Charles and Queen Camilla were appearing not only alive but lively in Northern Ireland. They had a brief lesson, then played bodhran drums as folk dancers performed in Belfast's Titanic Quarter, per the Independent. The royal couple adjourned to sip Irish whiskey produced by Titanic Distillers, which has turned an Edwardian pumphouse next to a dry dock that once held the Titanic into a distillery.