An in-studio "celebrity team' will take on other teams including 40 hairdressers, 40 estate agents, 40 football fans and the country itself. The celebrity team . . . Des Cahill, Charlie Bird, Grainne Seoige, Mary Kennedy, Eddie Hobbs and comedian Neil Delamere . . . all work for RTE.

Station spokesman Peter Feeney argued that the make-up of the "celebrity team" was not a practice in self-promotion. "You can argue if you like that it is incestuous, or that it is RTE promoting itself, but these are celebrities and celebrities tend to appear on television, " Feeney told the Sunday Tribune.

Meanwhile, many of RTE's high-profile presenters are due to disappear from the airwaves.

These include Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubridy.

Miriam O'Callaghan will take over Ryan Tubridy's Tubridy Tonight slot with a talk show, Saturday Night With Miriam. Brian Kennedy will be filling Pat Kenny's shoes with a Friday night programme called 1 To Remember With Brian Kennedy. Viewers will be invited to vote online for their favourite number one songs over the years, which Kennedy will then perform.

In response to the recent radio reshuffle, an online campaign is under way. The 'Save Rattlebag' campaign (www. myspace. com/saverattlebag) already has several high-profile Irish musicians involved, including Snow Patrol, the Devlins and Mercury Prize nominee Gemma Hayes. Its slogan is 'RTE . . . Aborting The Arts'.