Naomi Maguire has seen a lot of the world but has never been far from the youth market. As SPIN103.8 takes to the airwaves, she tells Ella Shanahan its time for a niche station

"As far as I can see I have lived a dream. I have travelled the world, made some incredible friends, always been lucky enough to work with people who have given me the challenges to get where I am today," Ms Naomi Maguire, chief executive of SPIN103.8, Dublin's new youth radio station, says.

On the air from 10.38 a.m. today, the station is targeting 15- 34-year-olds. And in spite of her opening statement, Ms Maguire is within that listenership although, at 32, she says she's "at the cusp".

An infectiously energetic, tall, slim Corkwoman, she says the youth market is all she has ever known, since she packed her bags the day after the Leaving Cert and set out on a trail that would take her from Dublin to London to New York and Hong Kong, before returning here eight weeks ago.

Dropping out of the College of Marketing in Dublin, she landed in London and on her feet: after a few short-term jobs in retailing, she became general manager of Emporio Armani and, after it acquired a youth market subsidiary in New York, A/X Armani Exchange, she became business development manager there, expanding the company's interests into Hong Kong and Australia.

"They were all-right and fantastic at the time. When I worked with Armani, to have the exposure of being able to develop business in Asia and the US and develop franchises and joint ventures, travelling the world, seeing how one business can transfer across from one country to another country but how similar the tastes are in the age bracket you're working in . . . Living in New York as a 25-year-old is probably one of the best experiences you can ever have."

Latterly, she spent four years in London with Gap, again a company that targets the youth market, in charge of business development and strategic planning for its 250 stores in Europe.

"My background is all about targeting youth brands. I didn't change jobs; I changed countries," she says.

When her husband, Terry Mulderry, moved back to the Republic a year ago, Gap allowed her to make her job commutable, but she found it exhausting and decided she needed to find a challenge in Dublin.

"I looked at the retail market and saw no opportunities. I heard about SPIN looking for a chief executive and went to visit the key shareholders and ended up in SPIN," she explains, as if she had just waved her magic wand and made it happen.

"I have always worked with youth brands and our target is 15-34-year-olds, so it's still within the area I have always worked with and enjoyed. It was a challenge to learn about the radio market but, ultimately, it's the same target, a youth-oriented station that will deliver the music that they like consistently, and that is the key. Fifteen- to 34-year-olds in the Dublin market - that's half the population. Basically, these people are the key people within any sector - opinion-formers . . . they have a huge amount of exposure in terms of travel, food and entertainment.

"We found over 60 per cent of this market would be happy to change to another station that would play the music they like and SPIN will provide the music they like. What they like is a mix between urban, pop, rock and chart, no more than two years old. It's about playing the new music and that is keeping in line with what's being bought in retail stores themselves."

Operating 24 hours a day, SPIN is a music station, with the requisite amount of news, and in the evenings speciality shows and acts with groups such as Ministry of Sound, one of its four shareholders. The others are Ossie Kilkenny, Mick Sherry and Radio 2000.

Big names in the Dublin music business have been recruited, including Johnny Moy "a really credible DJ on the Dublin circuit" and Barry Redsetta; then there's Steve K from 104 FM and Marty Miller from Today FM and on news, Gerry O'Connor from INN and Patricia Laverty, who formerly worked with a Washington TV channel. They have also taken young talent from pirate stations to make up their current 25 staff members.

"It gives us a nice balance between the DJs, existing radio station people and acts, and the new up-and-coming talent from pirate radio stations. We want to provide a legalised radio station that provides the music a lot of our listeners are currently listening to on pirate radio stations," she says.

The management team is a triumvirate. Apart from Ms Maguire, there is programme director Liam Thompson, formerly of 2FM, and marketing director John Boyle, former creative director at Indigo and EsatFusion, who bring with them many years' experience in radio and the music business.

"If you look at the management team, they want to create something new and a very fresh approach to radio in Dublin. In order to create something new and very different, the shareholders felt if they created a diverse management team with the core skills, they would be able to facilitate a very fresh-sounding station in Dublin.

"Between the three of us, we have a diverse management team, but we have all worked in the age-bracket we want to target. At the end of the day, it's about listening to the consumer, listening to the target audience, what they actually want and delivering it."

As chief executive, does she have any input into programming?

"We were talking about how to maintain the edge on programming; you can only do focus groups every 10 weeks.

"I was in the station the other day, seeing everybody who works here is in the age category. This is a focus group in its own right. It's amazing to hear the comments you get from the team. We have a focus group on site - no better way to understand what you're doing, right or wrong, in the music business, because they are passionate about the industry they work in. These kids are only 21, 22 but, oh my God, I have never seen such a belief in what we're trying to achieve at the moment. This type of station is the reason they have got into radio. They never had an opportunity before. They had to work with pirates."

Her first eight weeks have been "absolutely crazy but fantastic at the same time" and it's going to be more of the same for the foreseeable future.

"I don't think things will settle down. We have another six months of working madness to go through because I think we will be very excited by the product and will want to keep our ears to the ground and ensure we're getting it as right as we can possibly get it.

"You never get to a calm stage because you move so fast, you are producing the next phase before you finish the last one because, with youth, things move so fast and you have to work equally as fast with them. The work seems to get harder as you go along but it doesn't feel harder. The challenge gets bigger but it doesn't feel hard because you love it."

SPIN is located down by the Point Depot. "This is going to be a cool station. I don't think I look like somebody who wouldn't want to be part of something which is right. I am very excited about it. When we have been out talking to people about this station, we have had a huge reception, especially from the \ agencies. They believe it's right in Dublin to do something like this just now.

"This age bracket is more travelled, more exposed to different things and less tolerant of not getting what it wants."

And she says Joint National Listenership Research shows, while there's a dip in listenership between the ages of 20 and 24, it picks up again at 25.

"This is an opportunity to bring people back into the market at that age."

It would be wrong to say that Ms Maguire has no fear of failure, but she doesn't believe this one will fail. "It's time for new stations in the market to facilitate a niche. The radio market is changing. What you are seeing is an evolution towards new stations coming on board, targeting specific audiences."

Her decision to return to the Republic was predicated by her husband's decision to come back to Riverdeep. They met 12 years ago and married two years ago. "Travelling around the world there were better things to do than get married," she laughs, but they managed to stay together in whichever country the other was working in even if "there might have been six-months lag between one of us coming to the same country".

The youngest of eight children, she says her family has always thought she was mad. But she insists: "Believe in your dream. Never lose sight of it. You can do anything you want as long as you put your mind to it and as long as you're willing to put the time and the effort into it."