A new FM radio station will take on the rest next week. BCR FM, a student-manned station, will cover news, traffic, music, interviews, reviews, sports, Irish language items and lots more. It wants lots of listeners - and lots of advertising revenue which will go to charity.

The station, which will be run by students at Blackrock College, Dublin, has been given a special event licence by the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC). It will be heard in the greater Blackrock area from next Monday until Friday, November 27th, between 8 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. The enterprise has the support of The Irish Times, Lifetimes, South News, RTE Television, Independent Newspapers and Cablelink.

This is the sixth year that the school has been granted such a licence by the IRTC. A number of other nearby schools - among them Sion Hill, Mount Anville, Willow Park, Oatlands, Muckross and Templeogue - have been invited to contribute programmes for BCR FM.

BCR FM aims to highlight the needs of the less fortunate in the community and to promote the work of the St Vincent de Paul Society in the Dublin area. Last year it donated £20,000 to St Vincent de Paul. This year the station expects to raise even more. It will broadcast on 96.7 FM.

Raymond Dowling (15), a Transition Year student and a member of the station's advertising and publicity team, says headlining stars on BCR FM will include Dave Fanning and Eamonn Dunphy. There's also a chance that Sir Bob Geldof will give an interview but this has yet to be firmed up, he says.

The students are being guided by a management team of professionals from the broadcast media, among them David Harvey, producer of Crimeline on RTE, and Dermot Horan, producer of RTE TV's Bon Voyage Head to Toe.

The station has a population catchment of about 200,000 and expects to reach between 15 to 20 per cent of them.