Dublin's Country 106.8 FM will raise another €750,000 to fund a fresh marketing drive in the new year. The station has also decided to retain its name.

Chief executive Mr Pádraig O'Dwyer said the money would be used to market the station to new audiences and hire a public relations firm. He said all the station's shareholders would participate in the fund-raising.

For the past few months, the station has been engaged in discussions with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) about a possible name change and new corporate logo.

However, Mr O'Dwyer said the station was retaining the name Dublin's Country 106.8 FM after extensive market research.

"We feel we might lose the brand awareness we have built up if we dropped the name," he said.

The station considered changing the name to reflect the broader music policy it has adopted in the past year.

Mr O'Dwyer said the station was playing varied forms of country and not just traditional styles. He said the BCI was happy with its policy in this area.

The station had a 4 per cent listenership rating, according to the last Joint National Listenership Research survey.

Mr O'Dwyer said the station had exceeded all its targets during 2003 and hoped to make further gains.

Country is owned by Star Broadcasting. The shareholders are Yeoman International, Mr David Harvey, Marketing Network Limited, Mr Gerard Carron (chairman) and Mr Peter Norton.