Listening figures at Sussex radio stations have taken a further nosedive.

The latest quarterly report produced by RAJAR shows that BBC Southern Counties Radio has lost 70,000 listeners in three months.

The radio station is listened to by 212,000 people each week, compared to 282,000 in the last quarter, and each listener tunes in for an average of 8.6 hours per week.

Figures started to plummet after the station changed its line-up, replacing popular breakfast presenter John Radford with Neil Pringle, the station’s former managing editor.

Southern FM has also suffered a decline when it comes to listeners, losing 26,000 in the last quarter.

However, their share of the audience went up by 7.6% between June and September this year, meaning people are tuning into programmes for longer.

The station, which is based in Portslade, put this down to the investment it says it has made in its content.

Spirit FM, which covers Littlehampton, Bognor and Chichester, had positive results in the latest quarter.

The station has 5,000 more listeners and the amount of hours they tune in for has increased.

Mercury FM, which is based in Crawley, gained 4,000 listeners in the last quarter. During June and September last year, the radio station had 70,000 listeners.