TV3 and Denis O'Brien's Comminicorp are among bids for the multi-city radio licence on offer from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).
The FM service will be available in Dublin City, County and commuter belt, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Clare - a total population base of around 1.6 million listeners.
The BCI said today that the first phase of consideration of the applicants will take place in the Autumn.
Those applying for the franchise include TV3 Television under the More FM consortium, led by Peter Ennis.
Denis O'Brien's Communicorp has lodged a bid under the Legend FM consortium which is led by Ciaran Davis, Chief Operating Officer of Communicorp.
Among other stations, Communicorp owns Newstalk, 98fm and Spin Fm.
Businessman Michael McNamara, a former RTE broadcaster, is behind another bid under the Cream consortium.
Radio 3, a group led by businessman Mike Murphy, and former Newstalk boss Dan Healy, has also placed a bid for the franchise and Martin Block, former head of Lite FM, has put together a bid under the 4 FM consortium.
Mr Block, along with his brother Howard, made €3m when they sold Lite FM to UTV in 2003.
