North West Radio will face competition from two rival bidders for a licence to operate in Donegal south, Sligo and Leitrim.

The station, which holds the licence to operate in this franchise area, submitted its bid to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland under the name NWR FM.

The two rival consortia have applied to the Commission as Ocean FM. But both firms have submitted completely separate bids for the licence, which should be awarded in the first half of 2003.

One rival bidder, which applied as Ocean FM but has a company name of North West Broadcasting, includes some well-known personalities in sports and journalism among its shareholders. These include Mr Packie Bonner, former Celtic and Republic of Ireland soccer star; Mr Paul Williams, crime writer with the Sunday World; and Mr Eamon O'Hara, the 2002 all-star and member of the Sligo GAA team.

The other rival bidder for the radio licence - also branded Ocean FM - is backed by Donegal Highland Radio, which operates in the rival franchise area of Donegal North. Highland Radio has been one of the most successful of the local stations established to provide competition to the national broadcasters RTÉ and Today FM.

No rival bidder emerged in Highland Radio's franchise area of north Donegal yesterday.

The commission said all applications would be available for public inspection from February 7th. It will assess the applications under criteria laid down in the Radio and Television Act 1988, and the Broadcasting Act 2001. The applicants are expected to be invited for an oral hearing in March.

The two Donegal franchise areas are among the last of the local radio licences to be re-advertised by the commission.

So far, most of the re-advertised licence awards have gone to incumbents.