Former Daybreak host Mike Finnerty is returning to CBC Radio this fall to anchor Montreal's flagship morning show.

Mike Finnerty will return to Daybreak in the fall.Mike Finnerty will return to Daybreak in the fall. (CBC)Finnerty left Daybreak in 2009 to go work as an online editor for The Guardian in London, UK.

He says he is thrilled to be coming back to studio.

"I miss being on air. I miss the moment when the microphone goes hot, and the red light goes," he said over the phone on Tuesday.

"There's a contact that you get with Montrealers when you're doing that program, and there's nothing to compare to it, and I want it back."

Nancy Wood hosted Daybreak for six months after Finnerty's departure. She left the program in early 2010.

Finnerty will be back on CBC Radio One on August 9th, when he fills in as guest host for Anna-Maria Tremonti on The Current.

He'll be joining Daybreak in the fall.