Enlarge imageLONDON (Reuters) - Veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan is to step down from his long-running Radio 2 morning show and hand over the reins to colleague Chris Evans in the New Year, the BBC said.
The news came as Chris Moyles became the longest-serving Radio 1 breakfast DJ on Monday, overtaking Tony Blackburn's record which had stood for over 30 years.
Wogan's morning programme is Britain's most popular radio show, with nearly 8 million people tuning in to hear the 71-old presenter's ironical and Irish-accented take on life.
Wogan first hosted the breakfast show in 1972 in a run that lasted till 1984, when he moved full time to television, including an early evening chat show that ran three times a week.
He returned to the radio morning slot in 1993 to present "Wake Up To Wogan," which he will continue until he stands down at the end of December.
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"This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my broadcasting career, to say goodbye to you in the mornings," Wogan told listeners on Monday.
Wogan will continue to host BBC television's annual fund-raising "Children in Need" telethon and plans to present a new live Radio 2 show in the new year.
He stepped down from providing an increasingly sardonic television commentary on the Eurovision Song Contest last year after covering it across four decades, complaining the result had become too predictable.
Evans, 43, will move into Wogan's breakfast slot after three and a half years of presenting Radio 2's afternoon Drivetime show, which enjoys an audience of over five million listeners.
The Radio 1 record was broken when Moyles clocked up 2,073 days in the job. The 35-year-old joined the station in 1997 and pioneered the anarchic "zoo" style of radio in the breakfast slot, boosting the show's audience to its current daily level of 7.3 million from 5.5 million.
Unlike Wogan, Moyles has often attracted controversy, notably with jokes about Auschwitz and gay singer Will Young.
(Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Steve Addison)
