Sources close to the station said there seemed to be "a willingness" among some of its 18 private investors to appoint a corporate finance firm such as Merrion Capital to assess interest in the station.

Any such move is likely to be opposed by the station's sole corporate shareholder, Wicklow station East Coast Radio, which views its 12.5% stake in the station as being strategically important.

However, KFM's chief executive Noel Shannon said that there was no push among shareholders to sell the station.

"There's absolutely no prospect of that happening, " he said.

"We're all more than happy to continue with the station and you have to remember that most of our shareholders work in some capacity with the station."

Apart from East Coast FM, the firm's largest investors include Shannon, its chairman Billy Mulhern, its general manager Clem Ryan and David Mongey, who each have 12.5% stakes, and its commercial director Padraig O'Dwyer, who holds 18.75%.

Last year, the station's major shareholders split into two factions in a battle for control over the station. One group consisted of O'Dwyer, Mulhern and Shannon while the other consisted of Mongey, Ryan and East Coast Radio. Both sides made offers for the other's stakes during the row, which centred on shareholder interests in other stations.

Meanwhile, East Coast Radio has said that it is no longer on the market, despite renewed speculation that the station was still seeking a buyer. It had retained Merrion Capital to assess interest in the station last year but one of the station's directors Sean Ashmore said that it was an exploratory exercise.

He said that Denis O'Brien's Communicorp, which owns a 27% stake in the station, had had no input in that process. It is important to clarify that that exercise was undertaken by the board, not the shareholders, " he said.

Communicorp is widely expected to be forced to sell some of its radio interests in the greater Dublin area if it succeeds in its bid to acquire Emap's three Irish radio stations to win Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and Competition Authority approval for the deal.