Five groups have submitted bids to run a multi-city based radio service pitched at listeners over the age of 45. The service will cover Dublin, the commuter counties, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Clare.
The bidders include a consortium in which The Irish Times Ltd has a shareholding and another backed by veteran broadcaster Mike Murphy.
Details of their bid released yesterday by Far Away Radio, in which Mr Murphy is a 2 per cent shareholder, indicate that he plans to return to air if the consortium is successful, broadcasting a weekend show.
Mr Murphy, who left RTÉ seven years ago, subsequently founded Harcourt Developments, a property company that has projects in the Bahamas, Botswana, the US, Ireland and Britain.
Wilton Radio owns 98 per cent of Far Away Radio, which would broadcast as Radio 3, and recently secured regional youth licences from the BCI for the northwest and northeast. Wilton is backed by Boundary Capital, an investment group headed by financier Niall McFadden. Former Newstalk chief executive Dan Healy and Deborah Fagan, former chief financial officer with Communicorp, are also backers.
Far Away Radio will invest €8 million in the station. It will be based in Galway with a studio in Dublin and employ 58 full-time staff, according to Mr Healy.
The group is targeting revenues of €4 million in year one, rising to €8 million by year three, when it expects to break even.
"This is going to be a full tilt at Radio 1," Mr Healy said.
However, there is expected to be stiff competition for the multi-city licence, which presents the prospect of significant competition for RTÉ Radio 1 among its core listenership in most of the State's significant urban areas.
Other investors involved in the group backed by The Irish Times, Choice Broadcasting Limited, are Fox Broadcasting, which is controlled by brothers Howard and Martin Block; Thomas Crosbie Holdings, publisher of the Irish Examiner; Vienna Investments, which is led by Dermot Hanrahan and comprises the former owners of FM104; and Bay Broadcasting, which has operated temporary licences issued by the BCI.
Each has a 22.25 per cent stake in the consortium, which would broadcast as 4FM. The Irish Times has a 10 per cent investment, while chairwoman Mary Redmond owns 1 per cent.
The other applicants for the multi-city licence are: Denis O'Brien's Communicorp, TV3, and Cream, a consortium comprising Limerick businessman Michael McNamara, Radio Ireland, John McColgan and Tony Barry of the Barry tea family.
The BCI is expected to hold an oral hearing in November with the winning bid going live in late 2008.
