ASK any teenagers what radio station they listen to, or ask yourself why the radio at home is always tuned to long wave, and the answer is probably Atlantic 252.
But you will not find any mention of Atlantic 252 in the new Irish radio listenership figures, because the Trim based station broadcasts mainly to the British market.
CLT, the Luxembourg media giant that owns 80 per cent of the station, wanted to get into that market. It had found a gap, but could not get a frequency on which to broadcast.
The gap was people aged between 15 and 34 who wanted to listen to non stop music. Having researched the market, CLT, known in this part of the world for Radio Luxembourg, applied for a long wave frequency granted to Ireland.
RTE and CLT started Atlantic 252 as a so called "format" music station, offering a tight playlist of records, chosen after being researched intensively.
Atlantic 252 is a British station in everything but the location of studios and its management. The DJs are either English or American, the sound could come from anywhere, and the management is Irish.
In Britain, it has 3.8 million listeners. However, it also has an audience in Ireland, although this is neither measured nor talked about. Atlantic insists it is aimed at Britain, that it is not part of the Irish radio market, and does not want stations in the Republic suggesting that it is competing within the Irish market.
Industry sources believe the number of listeners here is possibly as high as 300,000 a week, or about 10 per cent of the market. If that figure is correct, it means it has a similar percentage audience to what it has in Britain, and without any marketing.
Its station manager and programme director, Mr Henry Owens, says the station's music policy is "to give people what they want". That is determined by researching fort nightly what should be on the playlist.
No pretence is made that 252 is not in Co Meath, but its audience in the north west and midlands of England, Wales and Scotland are given no hint as to where the station might be coming from. "Don't know what the weather's like where you are, but it's raining cats and dogs here," the DJ announced, but he does not say where "here" is.
During the years When 252 was losing money, RTE reduced its holding to 20 per cent. This year it received its first dividend of £100,000.
The chairman, Mr Donnach O'Driscoll, said that last year the station had made net profits of £2.5 million. He predicted that Radio Tara, the company that owns Atlantic 252, will be able to wipe out its accumulated losses of about £9 million within three years.
According to Mr O'Driscoll, who has just been appointed CLT's director of radio, Atlantic is key to CLT's strategic development in Britain. Mr O'Driscoll, who was born in Dublin and is a graduate of TCD, is a former chef de cabinet of the former EU president, Mr Gaston Thorn. Mr Thorn is president of CLT.
CLT is one of the major media players in Europe, with some 75 radio and television stations in eight countries. The German media giant, Bertelsmann, has just bought a stake in CLT.
Given the centrality of Atlantic 252 to CLT's radio development, any suggestion that the frequency might be used for a wholly Irish purpose is clearly worrying.
The Independent Radio and Television Commission, in its response to the Green Paper on Broadcasting, suggested that the long wave frequency be used to rebroadcast a range of programmes to the Irish diaspora, including news from RTE and the independent stations.
Mr O'Driscoll points to the economic benefits of the station to Ireland and to the commitment given by the Government. "Our position is we have made a long term investment, in co operation with RTE." That investment amounts to £10 million in start up costs and £10 million in losses.
IRTC might describe the frequency as a national asset, but Radio Tara has also pointed out that, if it lost the frequency, huge costs would be incurred by any service that replaced Atlantic 252. There is a view that the decision to pay a dividend to RTE was, in part, a move to head of criticism of the station.
The management in Trim talks of Atlantic 252 being in the export business, exporting radio. They point to the local employment (about 30 people are employed in Trim), the taxes and PRSI, the annual licence fee of £250,000 and the payments to Irish copyright organisations. Mr O'Driscoll says Radio Tara has been given a commitment by the Minister for Communications, Mr Lowry, to allow it to continue broadcasting until 1999.