Listeners who tuned in to a radio station heard nothing but static fuzz because thieves had stolen the transmitter aerial.

Burgess Hill-based Bright 106.4 FM was inundated with phone calls from angry listeners who were missing the breakfast show.

They were told the aerial and the £15,000 transmission equipment, kept on a water tower in Haywards Heath, had disappeared in the night.

Presenter Mark Wright said: "Dan Mills came in to present the breakfast show but could not hear the normal music that plays overnight.

"We knew something was wrong but it was not until we got to the site we realised lots of bits and pieces were missing and we had a serious problem.

"We are a commercial station and we had adverts we were not able to broadcast as well as not being able to do a show for listeners."

Mr Wright said the station was back on air just before midday but was still having problems because it was using a weaker transmitter.

Bright FM is the third station in Sussex to be targeted by thieves. Portslade-based Southern FM had equipment stolen and Juice FM, in Brighton, was off the air for several hours a few weeks ago when thieves took £40,000 of equipment.

Mr Wright said: "It is unbelievable. It is such specialist equipment and it is also dangerous because it uses a great deal of power.

"They really did run the risk of doing themselves serious damage. It seems there is an organised gang out there doing it. We were aware of equipment going missing but we didn't think it would be us."

Anyone with any information should call Sussex Police on 0845 6070999.