DRIVE 105 on the up

The station does not operate for profit and relies on a host of volunteers to bring quality radio to its listeners. Drive 105 currently operates with a community radio licence and broadcasts twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

Current presenter Felix Healy, former player and manager of Derry City FC said: "It has been a remarkable success story and we have done it with over fifty volunteers, bringing a new dimension to the lives of the people who are here. Nobody gets paid, not even travelling expenses, and we do sound like a professional station.

“The quality here is very high. We have a community licence but we don’t consider ourselves to be a community radio station. We are going for the full licence so hopefully in five years’ time we will have a full licence.

“We have had fantastic support from community groups in Derry and farther afield, and the emails and announcements that we get, minute by minute, is just non stop.”

Felix said Drive 105 adds a new dimension to radio in the North West: "Radio Foyle has been here a long time and it is basically news driven, it is basically talk driven. For music the majority of people here listen to BBC Radio One, Radio Two and Downtown. We are trying to give the local community an input."

Drive 105 provides potential volunteers with a foot in the door to the media industry, through training and opportunities.

"We provide people with opportunities. We provide them with the training,” said Felix, saying the station’s volunteers were “of all ages, of all creeds and of all walks of life.”

He also said there were middle-aged people at the station who “have never touched a mouse before and now have their own email address and are very good on the computer. We also have them set up with learning computer classes and that’s all part of the service we provide,” he said.

"Part of the remit of Drive 105 is to teach people about the media, also broadcasting twenty four hours a day. We are on the internet. All the programs are live on the internet live across the world, streaming. We have live presenters from 8 o'clock in the morning until 10 at night every day."

He added: "The quality here is very high. We are teaching individuals. We have all the information here. We have had the police, the paramedics, all the major political parties have been here on a regular basis. We bring vibrancy to Spencer Road.

"We have documentary type programmes as well. The community focus programme has gone right into the heart of the community - health centres, women’s shelters, all the community groups, we are there to facilitate them all the time."