It was with great sadness that 3AW stalwart Phil Brady announced the passing of David McGee “at the grand age of 90” on the station’s Nightline program last week.

McGee had been a well known announcer at the station in the 1960’s. 

Only trouble is, he was very much alive (still is) when the announcement of his passing was made on August 7. Which led to this retraction on August 8:  David McGee is alive and well. There are no excuses … stated the Phil and Simon facebook page.

Premature death notices are perhaps the most egregious of bloopers but 3AW is in good company. As revealed on Media Watch last night, others “sent to an early grave” include:

The Queen by the BBC in 2015.

Prince Philip by The Sun only a few months ago. 

Russell Crowe by New York’s radio Z100 in 2010.

Hillary Clinton in mid-2016 by New York’s WABC News.

Even radioinfo, we’re embarrassed to admit, erroneously called the death of the alleged serial conman, Dene Broadbelt in March, 2015

How can such a thing happen at 3AW?

Phil Brady’s co host Simon Owens told listeners: “If you follow a trail back, it goes to a Facebook post on a radio industry site where somebody said, ‘I heard somewhere else that David McGee passed away, but I can’t remember where’ and so that was the source of the whole thing.”

The “Facebook post on a radio industry site” that Owens refers to seems to be a page called the Radio Greenroom where we found this exchange (names changed or redacted) …

Poster 1: If I recall correctly, the post that is mentioned on air (and again replayed after 10pm) is referring to that one from Don, is it not? However, it seems to have mysteriously gone missing :

Listen to 3AW’s audio retraction and watch the the Media Watch segment below.

Go here to see the Media Watch segment and read the trascript.