LuMaye out at WTAQ By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Bill LuMaye's talk show on WTAQ AM 1360 ended Friday. He said he had been told the week before his show was being ended "for business reasons." "They have made a decision because money is finite. We talk about this on a daily basis. There is a direction they are taking that they feel is a better way to go," he said during a 10-minute farewell. "It's their toy and they can let whoever they want play with it." He had planned to take more calls, but apparently was told he could not, and ended the show with a collection of John Kerry statements showing changes by the candidate on Iraq. The station will replace LuMaye's show with a similar show from 9:30-11 a.m. weekdays hosted by Jerry Bader, who recently joined the station as programming director. LuMaye, who made no secret of his conservative, anti-tax views on his show, also wrote a biweekly column for more than two years for The News-Chronicle. He said afterward he will take a similar job at WPTF in Raleigh, N.C., doing a talk show in afternoon drive time between the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity syndicated shows, from 3-6 p.m. He will start there Oct. 4. LuMaye had been in the center of several local controversies, notably when he played tapes from a meeting of the Brown County Diversity Council on his program, leading to complaints from members of that group. But LuMaye said he felt his show had changed local politics. "If you take a look back in time when we started doing the show, there was a big news conference with (David) Rosenwasser of PMI and Nancy Nusbaum. Somebody mentioned Bill LuMaye and Rosenwasser said 'why are we talking about that radio station? There are more people in this room than listen to him,' and the media laughed. I don't know if they're laughing any more," he said. LuMaye also emphasized his support for soldiers in Iraq, especially those of the Green Bay-based 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion, hosting rallies and visiting the unit in Iraq in December, doing his show via satellite telephone. "To allow me to get to see even a brief moment of what their lives were like was life-changing for me. I don't have the words for how much I admire them. And that's why I'm so passionate when I see people in the news belittle them."