WNYC announced Friday that host John Hockenberry is leaving The Takeaway.

“Ultimately, in every challenging career, there comes a time when it is important to know when to move on,” Hockenberry told client stations in the announcement.

Hockenberry added that he wants to “directly experience how the media, citizens, and people in power can come together in new ways to create the functioning democracies of the 21st century.”

The news show, a co-production of the New York station and Public Radio International, premiered in 2008 as a conversational and interactive alternative to NPR’s Morning Edition. Initially helmed by Hockenberry and co-hosts, including Celeste Headlee, the program was pared back and revamped into a midday show.

“I have put more of myself and more than 30 years of accumulated wisdom about broadcast radio storytelling into The Takeaway,” Hockenberry said. “It is a more personal statement about what I believe radio, and particularly public radio, should be than anything I have ever done.”

The Takeaway’s Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich will host as WNYC searches for Hockenberry’s replacement. Hockenberry’s final broadcasts will air the week of Aug. 7.

Hockenberry spent 12 years as an NPR correspondent starting in 1980. He also reported for NBC News and ABC News before joining WNYC in 2007.

Dean Cappello, WNYC chief content officer, called Hockenberry “an original thinker and broadcaster. His love of radio is second to none, and his drive and personality helped bring the show to the point where it is today. His relentless pursuit of the truth is something we will carry forward.”

WNYC said The Takeaway “is at a high point in its evolution,” with 2.7 million weekly listeners and carriage on more than 270 stations.