How did radio caroline get its name?
Radio Caroline was founded by Irish music industry businessman Ronan O’Rahilly and Oliver Smedley. The station, Radio Caroline, began broadcasting on March 28, 1964 from the ex-passenger ferry MV Fredericia, anchored in international waters three miles (5 km) off the coast of Felixstowe, Suffolk, England. The station took its name from Caroline Kennedy, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy: O’Rahilly has said in interviews that when he flew to Dallas, Texas to buy the transmitters for the radio station, he was reading a copy of Look magazine. That issue contained a now-famous photo essay about the president and his two children John Jr and Caroline, who were playing with him in the Oval Office. O’Rahilly recalled a picture that showed John Jr crawling through a miniature doorway away from the President’s legs. O’Rahilly changed the subject in his retelling of this story from John Jr to Caroline and that is how both his ship and station gained their names.
