Ronan O'Rahilly

Ronan O'Rahilly (born 21 May 1940) is an Irish businessman best known for the creation of the offshore radio station, Radio Caroline, and the man who convinced George Lazenby to give up the role of British Agent James Bond after only one film.

O'Rahilly's parents owned the private port of Greenore in Carlingford Lough, County Louth. His grandfather Michael O'Rahilly (The O'Rahilly) was an important figure in the quest for the independence of Ireland, a leader in the Easter Rising, who died in the fighting in Dublin in April 1916.

Prior to his involvement with Radio Caroline, O'Rahilly ran the Scene club in London's Soho district and managed a number of pop music artists, including Georgie Fame and Alexis Korner. He recorded a Georgie Fame record on his own independent label, unheard of at the time. He took the record to the BBC to try to get it played. He discovered that the record industry was dominated by EMI and Decca. He then tried to get it played on Radio Luxembourg and again found that the shows were 'owned' by major labels EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips. They were essentially 'payola' shows, and featured only music from the paying label. He said "I have recorded the guy, so I can't get it played, so we have to start a radio station."

He therefore set about creating the pirate radio station Radio Caroline, which broadcast from a ship, the M.V. Caroline anchored in international waters off the coast of Essex, eastern England. In practice, the idea of Radio Caroline was based partly on a plan by Australian music publisher Allan Crawford (who had spent almost two years planning the launch of Radio Atlanta) and also on Radio Veronica which had been broadcasting off the Netherlands since 1960. Radio Caroline was largely funded by financier John Sheffield (great uncle of Samantha Cameron) and Carl Ross (creator of the Ross fishery frozen food business and grandfather of David Ross, the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse) and publisher Jocelyn Stevens.

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