Radio station forced to issue apology after mistakenly announcing King Charles had died
The station has apologised to King Charles and listeners for any 'any distress caused'
www.gbnews.com
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Apology: The king is dead, says Radio Caroline
- Thread starter leethalweapon
- Start date
www.gbnews.com
Ew, GB News.View attachment 11995Radio station forced to issue apology after mistakenly announcing King Charles had died
The station has apologised to King Charles and listeners for any 'any distress caused'
Radio Today has a link to the actual audio. They crash out of a song, announce it three times, including saying that "the news media has confirmed" that he's dead, play the National Anthem, and then announce it again, before crashing into an ad break.
Radio Caroline announces the death of King Charles
Radio Caroline says sorry after playing its Obit message announcing the death of King Charles
radiotoday.co.uk
There is a lot of nonsense in Caroline's statement. There's no requirement to "fall silent" on the death of the monarch, or to do anything specific. Broadcasting hours of silence, as in the U.S., is actually against the rules.
There's also no such thing as the "Death of a Monarch Procedure". There's the obit procedure, which covers various levels of VIP, with the King and the Prime Minister at the top, going down through lesser royals and politicians etc, with different procedures for each. Stations have an obit alarm, which is controlled from the network news provider and flashes if someone dies, to alert whoever is on air live to go to the obit procedure (normally to throw to the news at a certain time point, or to go to a prepared playlist of softer music).
The statement image also looks weirdly edited, like someone drafted and re-drafted it. This whole thing is odd.
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The weirdly inconsistent fonts and spacing in that image make it look like a scam e-mail.
At least the erroneous announcements keep repeating the name of the radio station, so that no listener is in any doubt as to which radio station has fouled up that badly!
One of the principles of good Journalism use to be unless you totally trust the reporter, or it's a quote from someone, always get two sources before letting the story go with your name on it.
As for the response, most retailers have a "manual" usually plastic cards on a binder or a notebook that tells the employee what to do during an emergency or if the local media shows up what to say.
Back in the day I was told to read what the AP teletype said. Later I would read WX warnings from the weather channel. I guess EAS will "handle" any emergency now.
As for the response, most retailers have a "manual" usually plastic cards on a binder or a notebook that tells the employee what to do during an emergency or if the local media shows up what to say.
Back in the day I was told to read what the AP teletype said. Later I would read WX warnings from the weather channel. I guess EAS will "handle" any emergency now.
Very common in the USG for organizations to keep what's known as a "brain book" to define not only day-to-day responsibilities, but how to deal with those "oh sh!t" scenarios as well. Review/update of the book was done at least annually, as well usually whenever there was a new commander/boss.
Incredibly embarrassing. Automation, I'm sure. I hope anyone involved is fired immediately.
This is what could happen if AI takes over the entire radio industry. Erroneous breaking news alerts, erroneous death notices (like the President, for example), etc., etc. It's already happening on YouTube, tons of fake videos showing celebrities 'died' but they didn't.
This is what could happen if AI takes over the entire radio industry. Erroneous breaking news alerts, erroneous death notices (like the President, for example), etc., etc. It's already happening on YouTube, tons of fake videos showing celebrities 'died' but they didn't.
Looks like whoever aired the segment was the same drunk who tried piecing together the apology graphic.
One of the misconceptions in radio is that you absolutely have to throw to the news, or play subdued music, or do anything at all out of the ordinary when the King dies. If you are in charge of a radio station, and you want to just keep playing funky house and doing "what's the worst Tinder date you've had!" and acting as if nothing happened, you are within your rights to do that. The obit procedure isn't a legal or regulatory requirement.
If you do keep playing house music and text-in topics about dating, you might annoy the listener who expects something different, you will probably attract negative press for being "disrespectful", but you won't get a fine, and you might after a little while clean up ratings wise.
When the Queen died a few years ago, it got very tiresome after half a day for me and I turned over to Irish radio so I could listen to some normal programming while working! How they expect the country to keep working while listening to melancholy instrumental tunes all day is crazy. It went on for a week or so. The rolling "news" is the worst - "what's the latest from outside Windsor Castle, Bob?" "she's still dead!".
If you do keep playing house music and text-in topics about dating, you might annoy the listener who expects something different, you will probably attract negative press for being "disrespectful", but you won't get a fine, and you might after a little while clean up ratings wise.
When the Queen died a few years ago, it got very tiresome after half a day for me and I turned over to Irish radio so I could listen to some normal programming while working! How they expect the country to keep working while listening to melancholy instrumental tunes all day is crazy. It went on for a week or so. The rolling "news" is the worst - "what's the latest from outside Windsor Castle, Bob?" "she's still dead!".
Back in the early 80s I happened to be listening to Radio Moscow when they switched from a riveting story about an isolated collective to somber music. Not long after that, they announced Leonid Brezhnev had died.
The UK isn't the Soviet Union, there is a free media.
When Elizabeth II died, most people other than devoted royal fans got very tired of the broadcast media after a short while. TV shows and sports matches canceled "out of respect", wall to wall tribute TV programming, looping news consisting of nothing more than "still dead, Huw", sad tunes on the radio.
Given the age and health status of the current King, we are likely to have another round of it within the next five years or so (for real, rather than in error) and I think the reaction is likely to be "not this again". Elizabeth II's death came a short time after Prince Philip's, which created yet another round of sad music and tributes, so the weariness is growing.
I think the further you get from the south east of England, the less most people really give a hoot about the royals.
Until that distance becomes so great that you reach American shores.
The coverage of the Queen's funeral, even the seemingly endless procession of the hearse through various countrysides with groups of adorers waving as she went by, was covered very thoroughly here.
It was the same with the royal wedding. Local terrestrial stations, even those without network affiliations, canceled all their regular programming to carry it in spite of the time difference. Note the time stamp from this station in Los Angeles:
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I remember!
What made it especially terrifying was the fact that at the time, our president was trading barbs with North Korea's Kim Jong Un (sp?) and the nuclear sabers were rattling quite loudly.
i remember that too.
As with @Miss Tuned , I found it very tedious after a while. I was also rather surprised that there's be so much interest in the US (UK's royalty is not particularly relevant or important here, other than symbolically, I suppose).
Given how I feel about 98% of the sad excuse for music that gets played over the radio, I actually probably wouldn't have minded the somber instrumental music. We never got any of that here, and probably never will.
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