WBGR seeks Sox games> Deal with WABI appears unlikely

Boston Red Sox fans in the central Maine area will be able to watch 31 additional Red Sox telecasts this spring, thanks to a deal with Sox flagship television station WABU (Channel 68) in Boston.

WFYW (Channel 41) in Waterville, a United Paramount Network (UPN) affiliate station, will air its first Sox telecast Friday night when the Red Sox host the Kansas City Royals.

“It’s been a good month,” said WFYW sports-news director Bob Dow. “We signed a contract with UPN last month, now we have the Red Sox, and we’re talking with Warner Brothers about taking them on as a secondary network.”

With all this programming ammo, WFYW has cemented its position as a solid station and also made itself an attractive option for local cable systems to pick up.

“That’s what I figure is now that we have the Sox and UPN programming, we have something people want and people will want to see us on their local cable systems,” said Dow.

Could the same type of deal occur in the Bangor area, with WBGR (Channel 33) picking up the games Bangor’s WABI (Channel 5) isn’t televising? Yes. Will it? Not likely, although WBGR general manager James McLeod is trying to make it happen.

“We’ve had discussions with Channel 5, but haven’t agreed to anything yet,” said McLeod.

Although Waterville is sometimes considered part of the Portland broadcast market, WFYW did not have to get permission from Portland CBS affiliate WGME (Channel 13) to do the games.

WGME does not have exclusive TV rights to Red Sox telecasts. WABI does. As part of its contract with WABU, WABI got exclusive rights to the 19 games it has already scheduled plus the other 56 games on WABU’s schedule.

For WBGR to show the Red Sox games not aired by WABI, Channel 33 officials would have to get permission of WABI to do so. That probably won’t happen.

“I have had no further talks [with McLeod] for a month,” said WABI vice-president and general manager Michael Young. “We have no interest or desire in having further discussions with WBGR or any other competitor on relinquishing our exclusive market rights to Red Sox baseball.”

McLeod said he has made several proposals, including one allowing WABI to add any games to its schedule while requiring WBGR to drop those games.

“We have more than one customer group,” said Young. “We have our viewers, our advertisers, and our stockholders. Two of those three would not be served by us providing another station programming ammunition to be used against this television station.”

McLeod said he’s surprised by Young’s response, given that McLeod thinks WABI could garner good publicity by allowing games they won’t be able to carry to be on somewhere else.

“I think stations are licensed to serve the community, and I would be disappointed if they take that firm a stance because the community is asking for something, and it could be provided if they granted us rights to the unused games,” McLeod said.

“We’d like to see Channel 33 get those other games,” said Bill Spitzer, WABU’s vice-president of development.