Graham Young meets the new BBC WM breakfast presenter Pete Morgan.

“Five years on a breakfast show really takes it out of you.

“I understand that it’s the greatest job in the world, but there comes a point where it’s really hard work.”

Those are not the words of BBC WM’s new breakfast star, Pete Morgan.

They were spoken by his new boss Gareth Roberts in March, talking about the strangely-worded ‘standing down’ announcement re the April 27 departure of Morgan’s cycling-mad predecessor, Phil Upton.

Like any radio manager, Roberts knows that the breakfast show is the most important platform for a station to succeed.

So whatever the reasons behind his first major managerial decision at WM, it’s unlikely he’ll ever make a more significant one.

In the end, Robert has made his choice.

And he’s gone for a Morgan who will come to work in a BMW – plenty of hand-crafted Midlands’ flair, then, with lots of reliability as standard.

The paradox is that Morgan will launch his Mailbox career on Bank Holiday Monday having only left BBC Radio Stoke’s breakfast show this Friday after five years of getting up at 3.50am to sit in the hot seat.

To introduce himself, Morgan will even be contributing live outside broadcast links from Diamond Jubilee parties on Sunday when Ed Doolan – a former breakfast presenter at WM in the ‘80s – is on air.

“I enjoy talking to people and, thankfully, they enjoy talking to me,” says Morgan, a big fella blessed with a beaming smile that’s hard to erase from his face.

“In the back of my mind I thought I’d do five years at Stoke.

“Beyond that, a change is as good as a rest.

“Everyone has a story to tell and you can’t deny the strength of a good story, whether it’s happy or sad.

“The West Midlands is a much bigger area than Stoke with a different audience and issues.

“Birmingham is a completely different city.

“It’s clear that I am not a Brummie, but I’ve never felt like an outsider.

“Nobody has ever made me feel like I should not be here.

“Attitudes like that welcome you and keep you here and I have a great deal of affection for Birmingham.”

While Upton was a night owl who found himself up with the larks, Morgan has always been an early riser.

Because his parents were greengrocers and newsagents in the days before petrol stations and supermarkets muscled in on the market, lie-ins were never a teenage option.

It also meant that Morgan was able to build up his current affairs knowledge from the papers and learn the gift of the gab from behind the counter.

Today, father Freddie’s job involves talking to young offenders who have committed crimes all the way up to murder.

And, even though his parents are now in their 60s, they are still fostering children up to four years old.

“Ninety children’s lives have been changed with the time they have spent with mum (Mary) and dad,” says Morgan, who has a 36-year-old sister, Kerry.

Going home to see his parents doesn’t make him wonder who is now sleeping in his bedroom though, because he never lived in the house where they are now based.

But, just like those foster children at home, Morgan is relaxed because he’s appreciating every minute of his own visit to the second chance saloon.

A Mancunian who has worked in Brighton, Bournemouth and Birmingham – ‘all the Bs’ – Morgan went from producing Ed James’ Heart FM breakfast show on Broad Street to working in an office for a couple of years in order to ‘gain an insight into the outside world’.

He might have left radio, but the industry hadn’t forgotten him.

A surprise call after Stoke’s breakfast presenter had left saw him snapping up the chance to return to broadcasting in October, 2007.

It was another call from out of the blue which got Morgan the WM job in February of this year, even though he was off sick on the day.

Impressed by the broadcaster’s “warm” personality, Roberts duly got his man.

Now 39, and just six months younger than when Upton started on WM’s breakfast show, Morgan is raring to get to know the West Midlands in more detail than ever... and for the listeners in turn to get to know him in good time for his 40th on September 5.

Because he’s lived in Sutton Coldfield for years, he’s already settled in the area.

And he’ll be able to get up as late as 4.30am now ready for his 6am to 9am shift on air.

Having known Upton for years, Morgan was even able to sit in on one of his last shows to see how WM worked.

“I produced Phil at Heart and he’s better than a good guy, he’s ridiculously talented,” says Morgan.

“We had spoken all the way through from the moment he announced he was leaving to the announcement of my appointment and met up for dinner a couple of times.

“He was the first person to say to me: ‘Congratulations... you will do a great job. If it can’t be me, I’m glad it’s you’. I thought that was very sweet.”

Post-Upton, Richard Wilford has been manfully standing in for a month now, but will the format change?

“I’ll be getting listeners involved as much as I can in the show,” says Morgan. “It will be about interaction and hearing their voices and opinions.

“I like to have a smile in the morning, you can’t be too serious.

“I just want to put smiles on people’s faces, it’s what people want in the morning. We won’t be Today. We’ll be WM.”

Morgan’s broadcasting heroes include Radio 4’s Eddie Mair, Five Live and Radio 2’s Simon Mayo and former BRMB breakfast host, Les Ross.

“I like good radio,” he says.

“But I’ve never been an anorak, I don’t need to have it on 24/7.”

Morgan admits that going from producing to office work to suddenly fronting a news show in Stoke was ‘a culture shock... probably the biggest learning curve I’ve experienced’.

He soon learned not to let politicians have their own way.

“I didn’t realise how interesting international politics was,” he says. “But it’s the same little dance that everybody does down to local level.”

Morgan hadn’t met his new boss Gareth Roberts before the call to arms.

“I’d heard of him in London and a friend had once worked with him on a commercial station,” says Morgan.

“I liked his ‘vision’, about what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it.”

He claims not to know what WM’s rating are and that he is not under pressure accordingly.

Morgan says: “Gareth has made me feel very much at ease because I’m stepping up to the next level after Stoke.

“He has been very encouraging about what I am going to do and what he believes I can do.

“In my own mind, I would have to feel that it was working before Christmas, but there’s also a tiny part of me which says: ‘You’ve got a week, don’t be mucking about’.

“When you don’t have a great show you do think: ‘Whatever (else) would I do?’

“And I’m not so arrogant that I’m not ‘stressed’ about starting. But you can’t let fear rule you otherwise you would never switch the mic on.”

As a standby, Morgan always has a list of anecdotes to sprinkle into this shows, but once even managed to keep going for 15 minutes during an outside broadcast.

“I can talk and flannel for three minutes, four all told...” he admits. “But not having any content for 15 minutes, that was an uncomfortable time for me!”

Naturally, one job he might expect to be doing within a couple of years is interviewing the Prime Minister and rival contenders during the run-up to the next general election.

“We have a limited amount of time at breakfasts, so you can’t do people justice if you only give them four minutes,” he says modestly. “Adrian Goldberg could go to places we can’t by spending 20 minutes with someone.” Unlike father of two Upton, Morgan does not have any children of his own yet.

Married for three years to corporate lawyer Jo(anne), there’s no mistaking the humility he feels when simply imagining what it would be like to hold his own baby.

“I would like a child to talk to and to love,” he says. “How great would that be?”

To make sure he can say up until 10pm in Jo’s company, Morgan has a 90-minute afternoon kip – just the right time, he’s worked out, to ensure he wakes up during a ‘light sleep’ period and does not feel groggy.

“I became obsessed with sleep and this is the best way,” he explains. “If you just want a nap, it has to be for less than 30 minutes. Jo is a very, very busy and successful woman and it’s all about being able to enjoy our time together. I’ve known her for eight years now and we have become very good at that.”

What would his ideal day off be? I’m always up before 7.30am, even at weekends, so that would be my lie in.

“I’d have a nice breakfast with the radio on, then I would have to take over a cinema to show something like Spielberg’s Jaws, which was such a ground-breaking film.

“It started the summer blockbusters and is an incredible piece of cinema.

“I’d have the perfect day with Jo – I enjoy shopping more than any man should – and we’d go somewhere for a nice meal.

“I don’t have many vices, though we do like to go to a nice restaurant. I met her at a friend’s birthday party in Bath... the relief when I found out she was from Birmingham was almost palpable.

“Today, if we go to my parents’ caravan in Blackpool, we still play the ‘spot the Tower’ first game.”

When Upton signed off on April 27, he told his listeners: ‘It’s been a privilege to come into your cars, homes and families for the past 23 years and that’s it. The End. But don’t forget... it’s only the radio’.

Meanwhile, their tireless former colleague Ed James has just celebrated his tenth anniversary on breakfasts at Heart and is still busy expanding his PR business.

One of James’s website pages has a list of ‘Ed’s mates’ who are available for hire, from EastEnders’ star Adam Woodyatt (Ian Beale) to... Pete Morgan.

How will that work now they are rivals?

Morgan says: “If you looked at our potential audiences as a diagram there would be very little overlap.

“There isn’t a crossover so, having known each other for ten years, we are both thrilled and both appreciate this is not competition or rivalry.”

Ed James says: “I’ll be pimping Pete out even more now he’s got a higher profile!

“We couldn’t run the agency if we only booked people I didn’t compete with and I’ve worked with many BRMB jocks in the past. On a personal note I’m genuinely delighted and proud of Pete. He was a great producer and an even better presenter.

“There will be no one happier than me when he does the business on the show!”

Loved by his predecessor. Loved by his rival. Wooed by his boss.

What could possibly go wrong?