• There have been many people behind the scenes of Radio Caroline, whose names are not familiar to many, and without whom the radio station would have had difficulty in surviving.
  One who deserves much credit for her help and support to Caroline and loyalty to Caroline founder Ronan O’Rahilly, is Oonagh Karanjia.

Peter Rachman	La discotheque

With their mutual music interests, Oonagh soon became a personal assistant to Ronan. She was involved in the setting up of Radio Caroline, and introduced her elder sister Frances van Staden as the stations Public relations officer.
As well as the radio station, Oonagh was a partner with Ronan in the company ROR Promotions, and involved with Ronan’s music publishing company ROAR music, and Spectre Promotions, who sold Caroline t-shirts and organised club music nights.

Oonagh was a director of Rosswood, a company which leased 6 Chesterfield Gardens, and that became known as Caroline House. The building had at one time been owned by Tomas Harris, a former MI6 officer and was a meeting place for the Cambridge Spy ring of Burgess and Mclean and others. By the 60’s the building appears to have become the property of London gangster Harry Meadows, who ran a nearby casino.

McLean and Burgess	Tomas Harris
6 Chesterfield Gardens		Main stair

With the introduction of the 1967 Marine Offences Act, Oonagh continued working clandestinely with Ronan and Radio Caroline, from an office at Royalty House, Dean Street in Soho. Officially it was the offices for Ronan’s company Mid-Atlantic Films, who went on to produce the cult classic Girl on a Motorcycle starring Marianne Faithfull.

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Royalty House	Sonny Karanjia with Ronan

Oonagh had married Sonny Karanjia, an architect who became involved with Ronan on the Caroline Homes project. These were to be low cost pre-fabricated houses, aimed at getting young people on the housing ladder. Whilst these were innovative, and generated much interest with the prototypes that were built, the finance to take the project forward wasn’t available.

Oonagh continued to work on and off for Ronan, and with the return of Radio Caroline in the 1970’s, and after the Dutch MOA, she again took a clandestine role. This time becoming responsible for arranging tendering and supplies to the Mi Amigo, and for organising disc jockeys travelling to the ship. She was mainly based in Boulogne, and it was there, in 1977, that she was convicted by the French courts, charged with organising fuel and food supplies and carrying passengers to the Radio Caroline ship.

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After being fined in French court case, Oonagh returned to England to work with Richard Laren at Lightening Records running the Old Gold oldies label.
She later became involved in property development in London, buying up and renovating old buildings, and then doing the same thing in Greece and Crete.

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In the last few years, Oonagh Karanjia was fighting a long battle against amyloidosis, an incurable protein storage disease. She sadly passed away on 11th July 2024.