Some BBC local radio services attract only 60,000 listeners in an entire week, after the corporation’s network of stations lost more than a million listeners over five years.
The number of people who listen to BBC local stations across the UK each week has fallen from 9.2 million in 2013 to 7.8 million today.
The figures mask even steeper declines at many individual stations, particularly those that serve counties and smaller cities. The weekly reach of BBC Essex, for instance, has fallen from 236,000 to 160,000 over five years, and BBC Radio Cornwall has dropped from 172,000 to 129,000 and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire is down from 105,000 to 66,000 listeners.
The most recent figures from Rajar, the audience measurement body, revealed that an average