Mix 101.7 HOFM breakfast presenter, Richard Moore, has decided to call it quits after 23 years and has his sights set on catching up on more than two decades of sleep.

Moore, who is 52, will get up at 4am for the last time on Friday, but has told Tim Martain in The Mercury he is not leaving the station, only reducing his role.

“I guess it’s a sea change, if that’s what people call it.

“I’m still going to be around the place. I just wanted to get off all those early mornings.”

Moore will work a couple of days a week at HOFM, but his new shift has not been finalised.

Starting in radio at 17, he began on breakfast 12 years later alongside Bob Cooke, who retired in 2003, and has worked ever since with Tori Hodgman.

“It’s been different with Tori, very new, which has kept me motivated. But, I’m at that age where I think there’s a few other things I want to do before old age really sets in.”

Moore says breakfast announcers normally only do the early shift for five to 10 years and waking up so early in the morning is getting increasingly harder, especially in winter.

He is looking to spend more time with his wife and five daughters.

“In all those years of doing breakfast shifts, I never got to have breakfast with my kids because I was always up and gone before they were out of bed.

“I also have a new house and I have some landscaping to do.”

HOFM General Manager, Tony Williams, says doing breakfast is hard work, especially for so long.

“I can understand why he wants the change. I respect his decision and the good thing is that we’re not losing him from the station.”

A breakfast replacement has not been announced.

Moore says the final week on HOFM breakfast will feature highlights from the many years and he wants to finish up quietly.

“I don’t really want to do anything special. I just hope people have enjoyed the show over the years and got a laugh out of it.”