The Channel Seven Sunrise co-host has called time on his breakfast TV role that turned him from a finance-reporting sidekick to a nationally recognisable celebrity and ratings king.
The passionate Port Adelaide AFL fan sprinkled his farewell message with football references as he held back tears.
"After 20 consecutive premierships in the breakfast rating game, I'm finding it harder to get off the ground to take those speccy marks and it's time to bring through the next generation," he told viewers on Monday.
"I don't want to be a list-clogger."
Initially filling in for a sick colleague, Koch landed in the host chair in 2002 at a time of rapid experimentation in the makeup of Seven's morning TV.
The end of his first year was marked by more change but the shift towards a lighter, tabloid style and host nicknames proved popular with the audience.
More than 5300 shows and enough hours of live TV to run for almost two consecutive years, Kochie and his co-hosts Mel (Melissa Doyle) and later Nat (Natalie Barr) interviewed tens of thousands of people.
"When I started at Sunrise, no one watched us," he told 3AW.
"We ... were being flogged every single week and we could try new things and no one cared, not even Seven executives.
"We were able to build this show that was different."
"I've never seen it as a stepping stone to anything else. I've never aspired to do any other show. It was a perfect show."
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