ON THE ICE

The Maine Broadcasting System, Channel 2 (WLBZ-TV, Bangor) and Channel 6 (WCSH, Portland) has secured the rights to televise the second and, if necessary, the third game of the Maine-Wisconsin NCAA Tournament quarterfinal series from Madison, Wis.

However, it will not do the Friday night game.

“First of all, it’s a very expensive proposition,” explained Margo Cobb, general manager at WLBZ-TV. “We also try to vary the pre-emptions when we can. A lot of viewers prefer our regular programming (instead of sports). And, from a practical point of view, the first game of the series is meaningless. Nothing would be proven until at least the second game.”

She added that they are “pleased” about receiving the bid.

“We’ve received a lot of positive feedback about our Maine hockey telecasts,” said Cobb, referring to the six regular-season games shown on the Maine Broadcasting System as well as the Saturday night NCAA Tournament first-round win over Bowling Green. “We even hear (positive things) from people who aren’t normally sports fans.”

The Maine Broadcasting System outbid the Community Broadcasting Network, WABI-TV Channel 5 in Bangor.

Channel 5 would have telecast the entire series, including Friday’s game.

“We put in a substantial bid and we were willing to pre-empt the NCAA Basketball Tournament games to do them,” said George Gonyar, the general manager at Channel 5. “But we didn’t have a Portland station going in with us on it so we got outbid.”

The CBS affiliate in the Portland area is WGME, Channel 13.

“We didn’t put in a bid for two reasons,” said WGME’s Towle Tompkins, the program director. “We didn’t want to pre-empt the NCAA Basketball Tournament and we also didn’t want to pre-empt the first of a two-part mini-series on Sunday night, Common Ground.”

Tompkins also said his station televises some Maine Mariners games and high school basketball games and the interest in Maine hockey isn’t as avid as it is in the Bangor area.

Gonyar and Tompkins both indicated that they will probably bid for the NCAA Final Four semifinal game – the final is on ESPN – if Maine can beat Wisconsin and go to the Final Four.

WABI-AM in Bangor, WGAN-AM in Portland and WDME-AM in Dover-Foxcroft will carry the entire series on radio with Joe Carr calling the play-by-play and Dave Westby being the analyst.

WLBZ’s broadcast team will include Dale Duff and Scott Smith.