TV slate continues to grow

The baseball broadcast schedules just keep on rolling in.

The FOX Network has announced its 18-game regular season schedule, which means local cable viewers will be able to watch a Major League Baseball game of the week on Saturday for a second straight season.

Of the 18 Saturday afternoon broadcasts, at least six will involve the Boston Red Sox. The first is May 31 (New York Yankees at Boston). FOX is also carrying the 1997 All-Star game on July 8.

Four games (three at 1 p.m. and one at 4) are offered on the FOX affiliate “menu” each week. As an affiliate, Portland’s WPXT (Channel 51) can basically pick which of the four it wants to air.

“Our intent is to pick every one of the Red Sox games. With six, there are two fewer than we had last year, but they haven’t picked any games for the final two weeks [Sept. 20 and 27] yet,” said WPXT general manager Doug Finck.

FOX will pick games with playoff implications the last two weeks.

“I think if they have any kind of a season, we could see eight games like we did last year,” Finck said.

Finck plans to pick games involving the closest teams, regionally, to New England whenever Red Sox games aren’t an option. Therefore, the New York Yankees will be his second choice. He also plans to request those games, even if they have 4 p.m. starts.

WPXT, or FOX 51, is also televising 47 other Red Sox games through a deal with Boston Sox flagship station WABU. Of the 47 games, 31 will be aired on a tape-delay basis.

A new TV station in the Portland-Auburn market, UPN35, managed by WPXT under a local management agreement (LMA) will carry another 33 Sox games. All 33 will be broadcasted live on UPN35, which won’t go on the air until July 10.

The 80 games split between WPXT and UPN35 will air in the Bangor area – on Bangor stations WABI (Ch. 5) or WBGR (Ch. 33), not on WPXT.

The Portland Sea Dogs have switched flagship stations, but not networks for the 1997 season.

All 142 of the Sea Dogs’ games will be on WZAN (970 AM). WZAN is a a member of the Portland Radio Group, which also owns former Portland flagship station WPOR (1490 AM).

The Class A state championship basketball games on March 15 will be broadcast live by both WABI and WPXT again this year.

WPXT will take the feed from WABI, which is producing and televising both games, and air it in every market except Bangor.

“This will probably be the last time we have live, local sporting events on FOX 51 because our plan is to have as much local sports on UPN35 as possible,” said Finck.