Top rating 612ABC Brisbane presenter Spencer Howson announced this morning that he is stepping down from hosting the breakfast show.

He told his listeners this morning he didn’t want to outstay his welcome at the breakfast table and was tired of 3:20am alarm.

“Whether it’s in a year or in five years or 10 years, at some point people will say he’s been doing it too long. I definitely want to go before I’ve outstayed my welcome. It is time for an enthusiastic presenter or presenters … I’ve got no idea, so the show can be refreshed and reinvigorated.

“At the end of the day I feel we are pretty much doing the same thing we were doing 12 months ago and to be honest pretty much the same show I was doing 11 years ago when I started and that’s because I’m still here… I think the listener will be the winner because I think the program will be the better for it.”

Howson has been waking up at 3:30am for the past 11 years to present the program.

He first hosted Breakfast in 1997 until 2000. He returned in 2006, where he beat all comers and gave 612 ABC Brisbane its first win in the Breakfast radio ratings since 1984.

Howson has been near at the top breakfast show ratings since then, although in recent surveys the show has slipped from top position in the market. In the most recent ratings for the 6-9am timeslot ABC612 breakfast (Howson, News, AM and the first half hour of the morning show) was in third place. He told Seven News Brisbane that it is his decision to leave the show.

Howson is expected to stay at the ABC in another role. Rebecca Levingston will take over the show as an interim presenter on December 5 but a new permanent host is yet to be named.

612 ABC Brisbane has not yet announced next year’s line-up. Other changes to ABC shifts around the country were announced yesterday.

See all our reports on Spencer Howson over the years here.