Terry Wogan's 8 million listeners are about to get a rude awakening. He is being replaced by the man who once gave us Honk Your Horn, Fat Lookalikes, and Don't Forget Your Toothbrush. Will you be waking up with Chris Evans?

There was no shortage of protest from listeners when the then controller of BBC Radio 2, Lesley Douglas, gave Evans the weekday drivetime show three years ago, replacing Johnnie Walker. Radio 2 devotees were up in arms and inundated the station's message boards with complaints.

Now that Evans is replacing the ultimate Radio 2 institution, Douglas's successor Bob Shennan can expect a lively postbag over the next week or two.

But in truth the station's fans should not be surprised. Evans has long been tipped for the breakfast role and there is a rather attractive symmetry that the one-time saviour of Radio 1 will go head to head with the station's incumbent saviour (how many saviours does one station need?) Chris Moyles.

When Evans first joined Radio 2, hosting a Saturday afternoon show in 2005, it sounded like he was trying too hard not to be Chris Evans. To these ears at least, Evans without the edge wasn't worth having at all.

But he grew into the role, made the drivetime show his own and has a clutch of awards and more than 5 million listeners to show for it. So much so that he makes the show that goes out before him on Radio 2, Steve Wright, sound like a bygone from another age. Or, at least, another station.

And that's one of the issues with Radio 2. The station has long faced criticism from commercial radio that it is targeting too young an audience and stealing listeners from the likes of Heart and Magic, and is currently being reviewed by the BBC Trust, along with its digital sister station, BBC 6Music.

Evans is unlikely to match Wogan's broad appeal, but his arrival will surely drive down the average age of the breakfast show audience. It remains to be seen whether commercial radio bosses will be reaching for the bubbly or the decanter of whisky and pearl-handled revolver. Possibly the latter.