No WABI radio bid for Maine sports contract

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The “bids” are in, but don’t look for the winning one to be announced anytime soon.

The deadline for stations to submit bids for the radio rights to University of Maine sporting events has come and gone, but members of UMaine’s bid evaluation committee have been unable to schedule a meeting to sift through bids.

There may not be many to sift through, if speculation that only one bid was received is accurate.

“That appears to be the case, but I haven’t heard anything concrete there,” said Chris Spruce, vice-president and general manager of the Zone Corporation.

The Zone Corporation is the parent company of Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) and Bangor’s WKIT (100.1 FM).

“We submitted our proposal, but there’s nothing final at this point,” said Spruce. “Hopefully, we’ll have a resolution to this whole thing soon.”

Bob Eslin, UMaine’s assistant director of purchasing and chairman of the five-member committee, refused to divulge how many bids had been received.

“All I can say is we’re at the stage where we’ve invited and received proposals and we’re evaluating them at the present time,” Eslin said.

WZON is currently in the final year of a three-year deal for Maine hockey, men’s basketball, and selected soccer and field hockey games which runs through the 1997 spring season.

The new contract period would begin next September.

While WZON is in, longtime Black Bear sports station WABI (910 AM) in Bangor is not.

“We didn’t put one in,” said George Hale, WABI’s station manager. “We just decided to take a new direction. It’s a difficult decision but it’s probably the correct decision for our station.”

The decision ends WABI’s run of almost 50 years broadcasting UMaine sports.

“We looked at the situation and UMaine’s needs and desires as well as ours. We felt it was probably time to take a different turn at this point, and that’s probably local sports… like Bangor High School,” Hale explained.

Other possible candidates – all-sports Skowhegan sister stations WSKW (1160 AM) and WHQO (107.9 FM) – are also not in the running, according to station manager Denny Morin.

Eslin said the committee, whose members come from three main university areas: athletics, public affairs, and purchasing; hasn’t been able to meet to go over the “proposals.”

“It all depends on how soon we can get together. I would like to award it soon. Hopefully, we can get it done in a couple of weeks,” said Eslin.

While Eslin’s committee is in the midst of the radio bidding process, they have yet to get things rolling on the television front.

“We’d like to get the radio stuff settled first. Hopefully, we can send the proposals for TV bids in December,” Eslin said.

Once those bid invitation forms go out, TV stations will have 30 days to submit their proposals.

After a year-long layoff, high school basketball on the radio is returning to Houlton.

After WHOU (100.1 FM) went off the air as a result of going bankrupt in October 1995 and didn’t go back on until April of 1996, after Paul Cleary and fellow owners Bob Anderson and Dave Moore bought the station at auction.

A listeners’ survey made one thing very clear, people wanted their basketball back.

“We had this in mind right from the start. A lot of people said they wanted to hear high school basketball again,” said Cleary.

They’ll hear it. WHOU will broadcast 49 games not including the tournament and will concentrate on eight teams: Houlton, Hodgdon, Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook, Central Aroostook of Mars Hill, Katahdin of Sherman Station, Presque Isle, Caribou, and Schenck of East Millinocket.

The first game, Madawaska at Houlton boys, is Dec. 6.

“We’re very excited about it. I can’t wait for the season to begin,” said Cleary.

Cleary will do play-by-play. The color man will come from a three-man rotation of former or current coaches: Phil Faulkner, Gerry Adams, and Terry Spurling.