Doing the breakfast show is a great time to be on air

Yes, I’m back on the breakfast show!

It’s not that I’m not used to it. I started my first breakfast show back in 1994 and carried on until I joined Wave 105 in 2009.

What an amazing job fellow News columnist Steve Power has done.

After an incredible 17-and-a-half years, he’s decided that he wants permanent lie-ins.

This works really well for us, as Steve and I will swap shows. I’ll be on at breakfast and Steve will host the Drive Time show.

It also works well for all of Steve’s many fans as they will still get to listen to him, even if it is at the other end of the working day.

It’s refreshing to see a presenter leave their show, but not the station. As a listener and a professional in the industry, I find that usually presenters just disappear off the face of the earth.

I’ve answered many a phone call from upset listeners asking where their favourite radio presenter has gone.

Normally they are booted out of the building as their face doesn’t fit any more and the bosses want to bring someone else in.

Or that presenter is head-hunted by another station.

In my experience, this can lead to listeners re-tuning. People become used to a certain person.

They like their style and personality. When they go, they are missed.

I cannot wait to get started. It’s been eight years since I last did breakfast, but it’s where I feel most happy and natural on-air.

It’s a great time to be on the radio. You set the agenda for the day, have the big talking points and hopefully get everyone in a more cheerful mood ready to face the day.

It really is a big honour for me to take on this show.

Steve has left me with very big audience figures. No pressure then!

So what to call it? Back in 1997 it was Rick’s Rude Awakening.

Now as a more mature, grown-up person and father of two children, how about Rick’s Comfy Slippers?

MY BADGE SNOBBERY DAYS ARE OVER - I’VE GOT A NEW MOKKA

There’s nothing like owning a car from brand new.

Mine has an eight-inch touch screen for all entertainment systems.

It links up with my phone, I can play songs off my Amazon Music account, streamed via my own car’s wi-fi system.

It has satellite navigation, but it also shows live traffic hotspots as busy roads turn red.

It has heated leather seats and a heated leather steering wheel. I have an app on my phone which speaks to the car, which means I can open and close the doors, check the car’s vital systems and load information into the satnav.

So it this a Mercedes? A BMW? No, it’s a Vauxhall Mokka X.

My badge snobbery days are over.

IT MAKES AN AMAZING CUP - IF I CAN BE BOTHERED WITH THE FAFF

I can now make coffee five different ways with my latest addition, the air-pump!

On first inspection it does look like some sort of gentleman’s enhancer,.

But no, it just makes great coffee.

You simply add espresso to the bottom of a tube, where you place a filter.

Add water when it gets to 80 degrees C, then place a cylinder into the tube and slowly press down.

This forms an air pocket which forces the water and coffee mixture through the filter.

It makes an amazing cup. But with all these systems, it takes time and patience.

There are times when I simply cannot be bothered with all the faff.

This is where instant coffee comes in!