The regulator, which received two complaints about the broadcast, said the “very significant inaccuracy” and the “considerable length of time” taken to acknowledge the error breached two of its rules.
One rule requires news reports to be accurate and impartial. The other requires significant mistakes to be acknowledged and corrected on air promptly.
Radio Caroline told Ofcom the error occurred when a member of staff accessed sound files pre-recorded in the event of the monarch’s death while carrying out maintenance on the studio computer, as the programme was being streamed remotely.
The staff member played the files “out of curiosity”, which stopped the stream from the presenter’s remote location and broadcast the files on air.
The person then reportedly “panicked and left the premises” after realising what had happened, according to the Ofcom statement.
Radio Caroline said the remote presenter “would not realise that they had gone ‘off air’ unless they were monitoring their output via an internet monitor”.
The presenter, believing they were still on air, was not actively monitoring their phone and did not immediately respond to calls from people at the station who had noticed the error, the report said.
The station said the person who played the files had been “reprimanded” and had “apologised”.
It added the pre-recorded files had now been removed from the studio computer.
– AFP