Upset listeners have vowed to boycott BBC Radio Kent amid sweeping changes which will see much of its local content disappear from today.

The drastic cuts to the station’s output will see a single afternoon show broadcast across all of Kent, Surrey and Sussex between 2pm and 6pm.

The evening schedule will also be networked, with shared content broadcast across a huge part of the south east.

At weekends, a single breakfast show will also broadcast across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

The cuts mean some of the station’s most popular presenters have seen their shows moved or axed altogether.

Pat Marsh has lost his regular afternoon show, moving instead to Sundays. His last afternoon appearance was last Thursday, sparking an emotional response from listeners on social media.

‘Sammy beebee’ took to X - formerly known as Twitter - to say: “This is just so awful for you all. Your listeners love you and you have kept us entertained and well informed. This is the saddest day.”

Ian Scammell added afternoons ‘won’t be the same now’ and asked: ‘What’s up with Radio Kent?’

David Verrall said: “You are the voice of Kent. Sad times for local radio.”

Denise Geeves described the move as ‘the kind of decision that is losing BBC Radio Kent all its loyal listeners’.

Tim Atherton told the presenter: “This makes no sense to me. Do these people not realise you are not just a radio presenter...you are a friend and comfort to many of your listeners and they will be in tears when you go. The word legend is used easily but you are one.”

Jacqui Johnson added: “I was really surprised to find you won't be hosting your afternoon weekday shows. What are the producers thinking? Listeners will leave in droves.”

Listener Linda Hunt-Green expressed sympathies to Pat along with other presenters Julia George and Steve Ladner.

“I’m so sad for you and Pat, and Julia George, and Steve Ladner. I think it’s absolute bloody madness on the part of the BBC,’ she added.

Even Pat’s producer Laura Earl took to the platform to express her sadness.

She posted: “Well, they say nothing lasts forever - but I honestly thought we had a few good years in us yet. Sadly that’s not to be and today is my last day producing the legend ⁦Pat Marsh. I’m gonna miss him like mad but God we have had a blast.”

The changes have been brought in as part of hugely controversial BBC plans to strip money out of its local radio output and plough it into local online news.

The plans have seen the corporation accused of abandoning its loyal radio listeners - including many older people - and using licence fee money to compete with commercial local news providers.

BBC’s local radio output has traditionally differed significantly and targeted different audiences to commercial stations, including kmfm in Kent. KentOnline’s sister station broadcasts exclusively from Kent to Kent.

BBC managers have already boasted how its reporters are ‘smashing’ online targets – whilst BBC Kent saw the biggest decline in audience of all the corporation’s stations when figures were released last week.

Protests have taken place around the UK, with many BBC workers walking out on strike.

Tracey Crouch, MP for Chatham and Aylesford, joined those protesting at the BBC studios in Tunbridge Wells, has previously described the corporation’s plans as “a massacre of all that is distinct within the BBC by the managers”.

The BBC’s director general Tim Davie has described the steps the corporation is taking as the “right thing to do” but added the changes to local radio have proved “very difficult and unpopular”.

Despite the listener backlash, a BBC spokesman defended the strategy, saying it was right to reduce costs in radio and invest in local digital news.

“Last year the BBC shared plans to put local information at the heart of the online experience with greater news provision for 43 areas across England. This means more original journalism and in-depth investigations with 130 additional journalists including a team of 70 investigative journalists across the country.”

But commercial publishers fear the BBC’s vast resources, resulting from the compulsory licence fee, could threaten the existence of some small publishers and inflict significant damage on even the largest.

Owen Meredith is chief executive of the News Media Association, which represents national and local media including KentOnline’s parent company Iliffe Media.

He said: “The rise in online audiences for BBC Local cynically trumpeted by the BBC is very worrying evidence of the effect of the BBC’s wrong-headed strategy of moving into an area already well served by commercial local providers.

“This shows audiences continue to be hungry for local news online, but the BBC is using the might of the licence fee to draw audiences away from commercial local news providers, depriving them of readers and the revenue to continue investment in trusted, professional, plural journalism, all at the expense of much-loved local radio services.

“The BBC Royal Charter is supposed to stop the BBC from impacting the commercial market in this way, Ofcom must take another look at this and put the brakes on the BBC’s expansionism.

“The long-term effect of this aggressive expansion into local news will be to eradicate plurality in the local news market, leaving us with the BBC as the only source of local news. We cannot allow that to happen.”