What possessed me to do it? I guess I must have been dropped on my head as a child! Seriously, we'd all been working in radio stations, or DJ-ing, and there was nowhere you could listen to the sort of music we liked - Pearl Jam and so on - unless it was some obscure programme on in the middle of the night. In fact, until we set up, even we were blissfully unaware of a lot of great Irish bands.

These days, the station is run by a committee of seven. We are all doing this part- time and since Phantom has become such a large beast, it wouldn't continue without the group effort. Everyone either has a day job or is studying. I'm studying radio production myself, so I live on a mature-student grant. The station brings in a certain amount of money, but it costs a lot to run.

On a typical day, I'd be in college until about 4 p.m. and then head straight to the station. Then I do all that glamorous rock-and-roll stuff like put out the bins! I talk to the staff, meet bands, meet promoters, do lots of administration and paperwork.

The committee meets at night, once a week. We have a chat about what everyone is doing and plan out work for the following week. The whole thing is half creative, half a time-management issue - just trying to figure out who can do what, when. The meeting usually drags on until two in the morning.

I do a show with the station on Wednesdays and one on Sunday night. Most nights after the station I work at home, e-mailing people in relation to everything from licence business to general research.

To date, we have made two unsuccessful applications. Not getting a licence has been the most disappointing thing so far. You have to put a huge amount of work into the application, and we have all had to put our careers on hold pending a licence.

We're getting a bit old for living on nothing and we're all starting to worry about things like eating.

On the other hand, it's true that there are drawbacks to getting a licence, and people worry the station would lose its soul. But we could pay people and we could sell the idea of the station, maybe set up an outside broadcasting unit - and we wouldn't have to live in fear of prosecution.

Every day I dread switching on the mobile after college and getting a message that we have been shut down. The worst thing about doing this is the fear that no matter what we invest, we could be shut down in the morning. I hate the uncertainty of it.

But the best thing is the lack of restraints on us as a pirate. We can use Phantom as a case study and take chances. If they don't work, we just make changes.

We have been advised to go more mainstream, but we would die on our arses if we left our musical base, so what's the point?

Having brought the station this far though, we would be foolish not to apply for a special-interest licence again - because that's what we want, and in fact, we are what Dublin needs!

In coversation with Jackie Bourke