Bermuda's radio stations are not doing a very good job of covering their own community, a former broadcaster who wants to start up a new religious radio station said yesterday.

Mr. Gladwyn Doars, who made his pitch to the Telecommunications Commission last week, also said that local radio stations relied too heavily on popular music, overseas programming and particularly The Royal Gazette to fill their air time.

"Some of the stations,'' Mr. Doars said during an interview yesterday, "just read The Royal Gazette and base their news on that.'' Pointing to the Gazette 's Community Calendar, he added: "All of these are charitable events, but you don't hear about them on the radio. The newspapers are full of them, so where are they? Where are the marriages? The births?'' According to Mr. Doars, who currently works as a senior technician for Cable and Wireless, Bermuda's broadcasting outlets are doing their older and less literate listeners a disservice by not providing more in-depth and on-the-spot community coverage.

When he worked for ZFB and ZBM in the 1970s, he said, he would regularly transmit live sermons from churches around the Island in so-called "outside broadcasts''.

"The audience,'' Mr. Doars said, "is still there for that type of programming, but the high cost of doing it prevents it today.'' If Mr. Doars has his way, his non-profit Covenant Broadcasting Network (CBN) will include more local content, less reggae and rock 'n' roll and more "contemporary religious music'' that appeals to both black and white Bermudians.

In addition, the 50-year-old Smith's resident said, weekend programming at the station would be devoted to material that has been produced both for and by the Island's young people.

Above all, Mr. Doars continued, the 24-hour station, which would necessarily consist of some foreign programming, would broadcast its local material "when the most locals will hear it'' and try to acquire "high-quality news and high-quality personnel''.

"Most churches have a reputable reputation on this Island. What they don't want is a `praise the Lord and pass the plate' kind of broadcasting.'' Although his application was opposed last week by rival station owner Mr.

Kenneth DeFontes, Mr. Doars said he was "confident'' his network would eventually be approved by the Commission, especially in light of its commitment to Bermudian content.

At the meeting, the only reservation that Commission chairman Mr. Charles Collis expressed publicly was Mr. Doars' affinity for US religious broadcasting, saying that a UK model of programming would be "more appropriate'' for Bermuda.

Mr. Doars, who said his network would seek "sponsors'' and not advertisers, expected to hear from the Commission on its decision in the near future.

If approved, he added, the station would become "a full-time pursuit but not a full-time job''.