BLINK and you might miss it, because it's only going to be on air for another six days.

The 87.9FM station, which hit the air waves on August 1 from a studio in High Wycombe, is being put together and broadcast by 25 youngsters, aged between 16 to 24, who are taking part in the Millennium Volunteers Blink FM project.

Glenn Crickmore, project co-ordinator at Wycombe Youth Action (WYA), who runs the local Millennium Volunteers programme, says: "It's a great opportunity for them to get experience of a radio station, especially as there are some who want to be newsreaders, sports journalists and that sort of thing.

"The shows were a bit shaky at first but now the youngsters are building up their confidence with the equipment and themselves. It's getting really good."

The project was the brain child of Glenn and WYA manager Lynda Cockerell after a few of the youngsters told them it would be something that they would be interested in doing for the community as part of their volunteering work.

So began the wheels of planning and preparation with obtaining licences, equipment and funds then four months later they were ready to go.

The Blink FM dream was kicked off with an Awards For All grant and a very good deal on the rental of the thousands of pounds' worth of equipment.

Glenn explains: "Transplan in Letchworth have been really helpful. They gave us a great deal on the price of renting the equipment. We have had a few things that have been broken, but they have come right out and fixed them."

Although it was first thought that the station would only reach the ears of those in the Wycombe area and Marlow, the Blink FM DJs can be heard over the air waves as far away as Amersham, Reading and Henley.

"It's reaching much further than we thought," says Glenn. "We have requests from people all over the place.

"From Monday to Friday we reach as far as Junction 17 on the M25. Then on Friday night and Saturday a pirate radio station disrupts the frequency. They must have a huge transmitter because it blocks the areas we can reach quite a lot."

Blink FM has been growing in popularity over the past 16 days. It receives about 15 to 20 text or phone requests a show. Not bad for a local radio station run by volunteers, most of whom have no radio experience.

"We have been broadcasting 24 hours a day," explains Glenn. "Some hospital radio DJs take on the night shows. But apart from that help, everything is done by the volunteers. They choose all the dialogue and music for the shows."

He explains that most of the DJs have learned their DJing skills on the job.

"Some don't even know what they are going to say until they get on air. We have had a number of 'moments' with inappropriate songs and lyrics going on air, like the Slip Knot stuff. We've had to tell the DJs about the songs they cannot play."

Even though the project sounds like it could be a legal minefield, Glenn takes it all in his stride and says the project is going so well that they have already started thinking about the next one.

"We come off air at 7pm on August 21. Now we've done it once, we know for next time but it will be bigger and better."

Next year Glenn hopes to sell advertisements to local companies at competitive prices to help boost the funds further to make next year's station the best it can be.

The local Millennium Volunteers programme is run by Wycombe Youth Action which encourages all different types of voluntary services in the community.

Most of all Youth Action gives young people real opportunities to play a key role in the design, delivery and evaluation of a variety of projects.

Contact Wycombe Youth Action and volunteering on 01494 447250 or wya_mv@yahoo.co.uk