Chris Moyles has become the longest-serving breakfast DJ on BBC Radio 1, overtaking the record set by Tony Blackburn more than 30 years ago.

The 35-year-old began the flagship radio role on January 5 2004 and has now clocked up 2,073 days in the job.

Blackburn was in post as Breakfast DJ from September 30 1967 to June 1 1973, serving a total of 2,072 days.

Moyles's team is celebrating the milestone with a tour of Britain, kicking off today with the show airing live from Plymouth.

They will go on to travel to Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow and London, hosting karaoke events called A Night With The Chris Moyles Show in each city.

Moyles has said: "By going out on the road for a week we are trying to thank as many people as we can."

He has the backing of the previous record holder Blackburn, who wrote in The Guardian last week: "Good for him - I'm a big admirer ... I would never have got away with what Moyles does.

"He's sometimes very close to the edge, but that's good because it moves things on."

Moyles is a few years older than Blackburn was in the role.

Blackburn gave the breakfast show up when 29, and some have questioned whether someone of Moyles's years can keep in touch with the young listeners the radio station aims to attract.

Blackburn said that by the end of his run, he had married and "didn't fit the image any more".

Another difference pointed out by Blackburn was that in his day he had 18 million listeners, as opposed to Moyles's figures of upwards of seven million.

Blackburn conceded: "But we had no real competition."

Not all of this year has been celebratory for Moyles, who landed himself in hot water over a series of controversial remarks on-air, including jokes about Auschwitz concentration camp and gay singer Will Young.

In July, the DJ hit out at BBC red tape and the lengths that the corporation goes to not to cause upset.

He told the Radio Times that radio is "so dull, so boring and so formulaic" that anything different stands out and it is impossible to always keep everyone happy.

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