Broadcaster Chris Tarrant is to stay with London radio station Capital FM to launch a new breakfast show - despite announcing that he wanted to leave.

The pop station, which is the most popular in London, said the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter would stay to launch a new breakfast show in January.

I just can't help it, radio is in my blood

Chris Tarrant

Tarrant had said he was ready to give up the flagship show, which he has presented since 1987, and recently told a newspaper that he "wanted to get off the treadmill".

But the 55-year-old said on Thursday: "I just can't help it, radio is in my blood and so is Capital.

"I'm sorry to disappoint the competition, but I am not ready to hang up the Capital headphones yet."

The revamped show will be named the New Breakfast Show, and will begin in January 2003.

No other details of the new show have been revealed, but a Capital spokeswoman said it would have "a new format and new concept".

The chief executive of Capital Radio Group, David Mansfield, said: "We have been discussing a number of programming ideas with Chris and we are both delighted that he will be station's new breakfast show in its first year."

Share delight

It is also not known how long Tarrant will stay on the new breakfast show.

Capital owns a number of stations across the UK, including the Century stations in the Midlands and north of England, BRMB in Birmingham and Red Dragon in south Wales.

It had earlier been reported that Tarrant was in talks to work on a show that would be broadcast across some of Capital's other stations, and not just in London.

Shares in the Capital Radio Group rose by 7% on Thursday, on the back of the Tarrant announcement, and a forecast that the company's revenues would be higher than expected.

Rival pop station Kiss 100 said it was unconcerned by the news.

Its breakfast show host Bam Bam - whose real name is Peter Poulton - had a website which asked listeners to predict the date of Tarrant's retirement.

"Chris has just delayed the inevitable day of reckoning for 12 months," a spokeswoman said.

Another London radio station, LBC, is under new ownership after being sold by radio conglomerate GWR.

New owner Chrysalis plans to put LBC on an FM frequency, swapping it with its sister News Direct station.

LBC pioneered the talk format used now by stations like Radio Five Live and Talk Sport, but has lost listeners since its 1980s heyday.