Death of The Queen Mother
IRN was strongly criticised by many of its client stations for its handing of the death of the Queen Mother on 29 March 2002. Many commercial radio stations have OBIT lights installed in their studios which are automatically triggered by IRN in the event of the death of a leading member of the British Royal family. This is designed to give stations warning of such an event and allow them to adjust their output accordingly, as well as join special programming produced by IRN.
On this occasion, the OBIT alarm button failed to be pressed by IRN staff in London and radio stations were caught off-guard when the news was announced in the regular 1800 news bulletin.
IRN editor Jon Godel subsequently issued an apology in a memo addressed to "all news editors and programme controllers" in which he admitted this was "not IRN's finest hour".
Read more about this topic: Independent Radio News
Famous quotes containing the words death, queen and/or mother:
“I don’t see no way out but death and, Caleb, you are up against a hard game when you got to die to beat it.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“O Queen of air and darkness,
I think ‘tis truth you say,
And I shall die to-morrow;
But you will die to-day.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns!
Love rules, Her gentler purpose runs.
A mighty mother turns in tears
The pages of her battle years,
Lamenting all her fallen sons!”
—Will Henry Thompson (1848–1918)