Former House Speaker Thomas Finneran announced on air Tuesday morning that Thursday would be his last day hosting the morning drive-time talk show on WRKO AM 680.

"Over the past several days, Jason Wolfe and I have been talking about various plans and opportunities which lie ahead for me and for the station," said Finneran.

"Those opportunities are of interest to me, but are not compatible with the hours I keep and the effort I make to prepare for, and to execute, a well-informed show every morning," Finneran said in a statement posted on the WRKO website.

Finneran has been hosting the morning radio talk show since February 2007. Finneran has also remained active on Beacon Hill as a lobbyist, counting among his clients the Massachusetts Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

"I try to learn from history and from our listeners, who in sharing some of their own histories, have been great teachers. I thank them and WRKO fora fast and fun five years," Finneran said.

Todd Feinburg, the co-host ofthe program, will become the sole host of AM drive on WRKO effective Friday, June 1.

A conservative Democrat from Mattapan, Finneran began serving in the House in 1978 and was elected five times as Speaker of the House, leaving in October 2004 and taking a $418,000 per year job as head of the trade group Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.

In January 2007,he received a sentence of 18 months of unsupervised probation and a $25,000 fine in connection with his plea of guilty to an obstruction of justice charge in connection with testimony in a redistricting-related court case.

His plea deal included a vow not to pursue any elected office for at least five years from the point of sentencing.