East Coast's shareholders, which include Denis O'Brien's radio company Communicorp, could stand to make around 6m on the sale of the company, market sources suggest. "We're obviously interested, we're looking at it, " said Block.

Block's Fox Radio consortium is backed by "a number of English and Irish investors", he said, and already has funding in place to complete such an acquisition. "We've been looking at potential acquisitions in the UK and Irish markets for some time, " he said.

The Fox Radio consortium, which also lists Block's brother Howard and Al Dunne of Dublin public relations firm Unique Media as directors, is likely to face competition from a number of other bidders. UTV, British company Emap and Radio Kerry have all been mooted as buyers.

Communicorp, one of East Coast's existing shareholders, also has pre-emption rights. The company could yet choose to exercise, and buy East Coast itself.

The process is complicated by the fact that Merrion Capital, which is handling the sale, is also selling Country Mix, and has a number of shareholders in common with East Coast. The largest individual shareholder in Country, Gerry Carron, is also a shareholder in East Coast. It is understood that Merrion has not ruled out selling both stations as a package.

Industry sources said Country Mix, which had accumulated losses of 2.9m in the year to March 2005, would be worth less than East Coast, possibly only 2m.

East Coast has not yet filed accounts for 2005 but it is understood the company had turnover of 2m during the period, and made a profit of about 250,000.