WLBZ, Ox sign contract for TV games

They’ve only filled a quarter of their team roster so far, but the Bangor Blue Ox now have a television contract to go along with the radio network they formed earlier this week.

Not since WLBZ (Channel 2) in Bangor carried a few Maine Guides games in the mid-1980’s have minor league baseball games been carried live by a local TV station.

WLBZ will broadcast at least four Bangor Blue Ox games live this summer with an option to do more after the conclusion of the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Officials at WLBZ and the Blue Ox signed a one-year contract Thursday. The deal is not a straight cash-for-games deal, according to Blue Ox president and general manager Dean Gyorgy.

“I would just say it’s a mix of things, including promotional considerations,” said Gyorgy.

The broadcast schedule starts with the team’s June 10 home opener against the Rhode Island Tigersharks at Mahaney Diamond in Orono. The other three scheduled telecasts – all home games – will be June 17, 24, and 29.

Persistence was the key to WLBZ securing rights to the games in which Bangor’s other two stations also showed interest.

“We had talks with the other stations, but they called more often. They were the most persistent,” said Gyorgy, who credited WLBZ general manager Judy Horan as the driving force behind the deal.

Horan became interested in the Blue Ox because of her past experience with minor league baseball.

“My very close friend had a friend who brought the [West Michigan] Whitecaps to Grand Rapids just as I was leaving that area,” said Horan. “The team is breaking all kinds of records and they’ve done real well for two years now.

“If they can create that kind of excitement, surely we can create that here as well.”

Unlike the radio deal, where the Blue Ox are basically buying the radio time and doing their own broadcasting and selling of advertising, WLBZ will handle all aspects of the games’ production.

“We haven’t hammered it out yet, but we’re looking at having our own play-by-play announcer,” said Horan, adding although it’s strictly WLBZ’s production, the station may use personnel from WCSH in Portland to help on the telecasts.

The freedom and flexibility WLBZ will have in deciding what kind of promotions (contests, ticket giveaways, etc.) and commercials they do in conjunction with the team was another benefit to getting the games.

“This is a far better situation for our station than when we were carrying the Red Sox in that the promotional possibilities are endless,” said WLBZ general sales manager George Baines. “We can promote it however we want, as much as we want.”

The Blue Ox are a member of the Northeast Baseball League, an independent league.