City Derry Format News, Music, Sport | First air date 11 September 1979 | |
Broadcast area County Londonderry,
Northern Ireland Frequency FM: 93.1 MHz
MW: 792 kHz
Freeview: 720 (NI only)
Freesat: 717
Sky: 0152 (NI only)
Virgin Media: 933
Online: [1] Owner BBC,
BBC Northern Ireland | ||
BBC Radio Foyle (Irish: BBC Raidió Feabhail) is a BBC Northern Ireland local radio station, serving County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. It is named after the River Foyle which flows through Derry, the city where the station is based. The station broadcasts from BBC's Northland Road studios on 93.1 FM and 792 MW in Derry, County Londonderry. There is also a small television studio based there used for interviews with the interviewee sitting in front of a CSO screen which normally has a live view of Derry.
Contents
- Weekday opt out programming
- Weekday evening opt out programmes
- Weekend opt out programmes
- Digital
- References
It is an opt-out from BBC Radio's main Northern Ireland service, BBC Radio Ulster. BBC Radio Foyle's weekday schedule begins at 7:30am and continues until 5:00pm.
Weekday opt-out programming
From 0700 until 1600, BBC Radio Foyle broadcasts hourly news summaries.
The Sean Coyle Show broadcast between 10.30am-12pm on weekday mornings is broadcast on both Radio Foyle and Radio Ulster from Radio Foyle's studios. In 2013 Radio Foyle opted out of the last half-hour of the Nolan show to broadcast Pure Culture as part of the 2013 City of Culture
Weekday evening opt-out programmes
Between 0630 and 0100, all other programming are broadcast from Radio Ulster. Between 0100 and 0630, Radio 5 Live programming is simulcast.
Weekend opt-out programmes
Local news summaries are broadcast every hour between 1000 and 1300, plus at 1500 and 1600. The weekend opt out has reduced recently. Previously BBC Radio Foyle did their own Saturday Afternoon Sports Show but now just carry Sportsound as BBC Radio Ulster, The local religious programme Rejoice with James McClelland continues to air on Sundays from after the 4.00pm news until 5.00pm. Between 0655 and 0100, all other programmes are broadcast from Radio Ulster. Between 0100 and 0655, Radio 5 Live programming is simulcast.
Digital
BBC Radio Foyle is available online and is carried on Freeview in Northern Ireland (occupying the slot held by BBC Radio nan Gàidheal in Scotland and by BBC Radio Cymru in Wales). It was not initially available on DAB digital radio, however; the Northern Ireland multiplex licence only requires carriage of Radio Ulster.
In June 2010, the BBC announced a trial scheme under which Radio Foyle would be available on DAB as a part-time sidecar station to Radio Ulster, using a similar format as the part-time longwave-programming optouts of BBC Radio 4 on the BBC National DAB multiplex. During this trial, the bitrate of Radio Ulster would drop during Foyle's separate broadcast hours, with Foyle carried as a split audio stream in the remaining space; outside of split shows, the full bitrate would revert to Radio Ulster.
When the Digital One ensemble commenced broadcasting in Northern Ireland certain stations that used Digital One in the rest of the UK left the Northern Ireland ensemble, leaving space for Radio Foyle to broadcast in Stereo without the need for the Radio Ulster capacity to be split.