The recently appointed head of BBC Radio Foyle, one of the BBC's most sensitive posts, is an interesting woman. Ms Anna Leddy is an Irish speaker from the English midlands who has worked in local radio as well as with BBC Radio 4. She also sings Irish music and country-and-western professionally.
As if to complete the almost Reithian balance, this English-born Irish speaker will be sending her three children to an integrated school when she moves from Macclesfield to Derry.
Radio Foyle is more than just another of the BBC's 42 local stations. Its small audience is divided and offers a unique challenge to a radio station which has been trying since 1979 to tread sensitively while also attempting to reflect the real city and its communities.
Where the print media can appeal to either communities, Radio Foyle must be acceptable to the readership of both the Londonderry Sentinel and the Derry Journal, which it appears to have done with some success. A recent internal BBC report said Derry people held Radio Foyle in high regard.
Anna Leddy admits the name Derry comes naturally to her, but adds that she respects the views of others and understands that the name of the city is one of those sensitivities which is part of Radio Foyle.
She was born in Sheffield. Both her parents were doctors, her mother from Dublin, her father from Belfast. She, her six sisters and her two brothers were brought up speaking Irish. The Irish language connection is strong, her maternal grandfather being a professor of Irish at UCD.
She was sent to St Louis in Monaghan and to Trinity College Dublin. She graduated in English, history and Irish in 1978.
After a spell as an au pair and some travelling, she got a job at Radio Sheffield, making coffee and running messages, before getting freelance work with Radio Aire in Leeds. She spent also some years working in the newsroom of Radio Stoke.
She left there to work in the Manchester studios of Radio 4, producing the daily consumer programme You And Yours and Women's Hour. For the past 2 1/2 years she has been senior producer on the media programme, Medium wave. It was her work on that programme which led her to Radio Foyle. She was having dinner in Belfast with the late Vincent Hanna who was presenting an edition of the programme from Belfast last July 12th. He said the top job in Radio Foyle had been advertised and he thought she should apply.
Hanna, who with Ms Leddy pushed Ireland on to the agenda of that edition of Mediumwave, presented only one more programme before his death. Medi umwave ends next year, a casualty of the revamped Radio 4 schedule under its new controller.
"I know local radio, I know how it works and the effect it has in its community. I have always missed it and was never one of those who became snobbish about it once they got on to the network. I am passionate about radio and I am a good strong journalist," she says.
There are sensitivities which Radio Foyle has to deal with every day, but it also reflects a culturally rich area "and that is a huge gift for any broadcaster".
The people of Derry have more than just a political agenda, they have the same worries and concerns as others about health, education and work.
"There is a necessity to look at other agendas instead of just the political one, as the peace process holds," she says.
She speaks of the close relationship with BBC Radio Ulster and about contributing more to its schedule. She also points to the BBC's internal market as a place where Radio Foyle programmes are available throughout the network.
"Our first duty is to Radio Foyle and Derry, but we are part of the BBC, with all the strengths of that relationship. Our duty is to look closely at local institutions and challenge them with a good investigative news operation. It is our job to look beyond the political agenda and reflect the vigour and colour of the city."