If you’ve idly turned the dial on your radio of a cold winter’s evening lately, and discovered a new station playing perhaps the widest selection of tunes you could think of, from rave to rock to ceilidh to classics – then chances are you’ve landed on 97.4FM, the home of Dunoon Community Radio. 
With regular DJs Victor and Douglas ad-libbing and bantering across the airwaves like they’ve been doing it for years, a host of guest presenters, and of course all those tunes, it’s hard to believe that the fledgling station has only been broadcasting for a few weeks.
The station’s success is even more remarkable when you go behind the scenes at the studio – a corner of an office in Dunoon’s town centre.
Despite their cramped surroundings, Dunoon Community Radio is off to a flying start – and with the backing of the local community, can only go from strength to strength.
We caught up with Victor and Douglas during their regular nightly show recently.
Victor Thomas is one of the original volunteers who’s been working to bring a radio station to Dunoon over the last few years.
He said: “We’ve only been broadcasting since December 1, but it seems like much longer!
“This is really our first major publicity since we’ve been on air and sometimes we do wonder if people really know we exist!
“We don’t know how many listeners we have yet – unfortunately we have no way of finding that out at the moment. But we believe there’s at least one out there…”
Victor and co-host Douglas Stevely, along with engineer Tony Wood, administrator Fiona Garnham and IT man Andrew Eldridge, have been the mainstays of Dunoon Community Radio from the start. However, they’re frequently joined on air by presenters Billy McGraw, DJ Davie No Name, Paul Pollard, Justin Thyme, Seamus Monaghan and their newest and youngest recruit, 16-year-old Andrew Macintosh.
At the moment, the station is broadcasting highlights from Celtic Connections during the day. Douglas and Victor have a nightly four-hour show and the other DJs and presenters have slots too – but there is still plenty of room for any budding DJs, newsreaders or sound engineers to get involved.
Victor said: “It’s very important to have community support and we would love for other people to come and join us and get involved.
“Come along any night that we’re broadcasting and have a look at what goes on, see whether you like it.
“In the future we are hoping to cover local events, host discussions and debates and have a whole range of programmes from local history to up-to-date issues that affect us. So, if you have any ideas, please come along and share them. You might even get a cup of tea and a biscuit!”
So, don’t be shy – if you’re raring to get going on the radio, or even if you are of a more retiring nature but would like to get involved behind the scenes, give the guys at DCR97.4FM a call or a text.
Or even if you just want them to play a request, they’ll be glad to hear from you. Call or text 07751 236995 or e-mail dunooncommunityradio@yahoo.co.uk. Find out more, including programme schedules, at www.dunooncommunityradio.org

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