Sir Terry Wogan announces his departure from BBC Radio 2 breakfast show

Sir Terry Wogan has announced that he will be no longer presenting the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, after a 16 year run on the station.

Wogan had been presenting the show since April 1972 to December 1984. At the time he had left BBC Radio 2 to pursue a career in television. He came back onto the breakfast show in January 1993 with his show, Wake Up to Wogan. Now Terry has decided to retire from BBC Radio 2 in December.

While live on air on Monday morning, Wogan said to his listeners, "I wanted to be first to tell you. It's the least I owe you, for endless years, countless hours of morning companionship, friendship, good humour and laughter. Your loyalty and support has been a beacon of love in my life. There hasn't been a morning, no matter how dark and dreary, that I haven't had a smile on my face and a song in my heart at the prospect of your company, your marvellous mail, your wit and wisdom. This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my broadcasting career, to say goodbye to you in the mornings."

Wogan also announced that his career was not finished altogether adding that, "I'll be starting a really exciting new show...in front of you, as my live audience, presenting the very pinnacle of live music, artists, guests, and of course, you, your mail, your warmth, your wit." The new show will take place in the Broadcasting House and will be presented live by Wogan himself.

Chris Evans, who will be replacing Terry Wogan as the breakfast show DJ, will start in January 2010. He previously presented the breakfast show for BBC Radio 1 in 1995 but after the British station refused to meet his demands for a four-day week, he left in 1997.

Fans of Wogan — or T.O.G.s (Terry's Old Geezers) as they're commonly referred to — expressed their disappointment about his departure. One fan wrote: "I'd rather have silence than have to endure the torture of being shouted at over breakfast. It will be disaster for the listeners and the station."