A RADIO station has taken a “cheeky” dig at a national radio company in their new show advert.

Spirit FM, which is based in Chichester and serves a large portion of West Sussex, has seen a boost in listeners since radio company Global took the decision to close Heart Sussex.

The station, which is popular is areas like Worthing and Horsham, is now one of a dwindling number of local commercial radio stations in Sussex along with More Radio which broadcasts across the county.

And now the host of the morning show on Spirit has taken the chance to have a bit of fun with the station’s national rivals in a new online advert.

Breakfast show host Stuart McGinley, who co-hosts the Breakfast Show with fellow presenter Simon Fielding, posted the image for his show, McGinley in the Morning, on social media site Facebook.

The image reads: “Forget your heart, use your head. Wake up with McGinley in the Morning. Two local people who’ve never been on the telly.”

When asked about the picture Stuart said: “It’s all very tongue in cheek, it’s just a light hearted way of saying ‘if you don’t want to listen to that, listen to this’.”

Stuart added that while it is good that the station has seen a boost, the past few months have been sad for local radio.

He said: “It’s very sad and it’s something we’ve been aware of for a while.

“We’ve always believed in passionately serving the community.

“We do campaigns and charity appeals to help local people.

“Local radio can really make a difference and change lives.

“It’s very important to keep things local, that’s why people choose to listen.

“It’s important for people to have that local connection.

“We have had people come to us and say they switched over from Heart when the change took place, because they want local content.

“It is very nice to see, it shows it matters to people.”

The poster was put up in the wake of the closure of the Heart Sussex office, formerly based in Portslade.

The office, which was also home to Capital Brighton, was shut earlier this year with staff moving to Hampshire and shows being syndicated nationally.

Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston replaced the popular Tom Evans, Nicola Humes and Jack “The Lad” Hayes on the Heart Sussex breakfast show.

Since then there have been campaigns started online to get the trio back on the air, with fans voicing their discontent at the new Heart breakfast show line-up.