Friday’s announcement that the University of Maine has awarded WZON exclusive radio broadcast rights for Black Bear sports should be disturbing to fans of UMaine athletics.

It appears to be a great coup for The Zone Corp., owned by Stephen King. The stations (WZON-AM and WKIT-FM) now hold the rights to UMaine football, women’s basketball, and baseball in addition to the hockey and men’s basketball coverage it already provided.

While WZON has done a commendable job in its live coverage of local sports, including UMaine, the station has only bought itself more trouble.

Last winter, “The Sports Zone” had the rights to hockey and men’s hoop. Even that created several scheduling conflicts between the sports for WZON, which also airs some Bruins and Celtics games.

UMaine hockey, presumably because of its large following, took precedence over men’s basketball. Basketball games were either joined in progress or covered by way of periodic live updates during whatever other game the station had on.

Thus, men’s basketball fans were already having trouble following the Black Bear men consistently on the radio.

Now, try to imagine WZON juggling its coverage of the UMaine hockey team and its resurgence toward the NCAA Tournament next winter while also satisfying the growing legion of Black Bear women’s basketball fans and the core of UMaine men’s fans. It’s impossible.

Many of those games will be played on the same day at the same time, which will force WZON to make a tough choices. The contest that is likely to wind up on the air, of course, is the one the station’s salespeople have best been able to sell to local advertisers.

UMaine fans don’t care a lick about who’s advertising. They want to hear the games.

However, the blame here rests with the university, not with “The Sports Zone.”

UMaine officials say no other stations submitted proposals to broadcast Black Bear sports. That’s a cop-out.

The university should have actively solicited other bids, marketing its athletic programs to local stations in an attempt to provide maximum coverage of UMaine sports on the radio.

In failing to seek a more balanced approach at broadcasting UMaine sports on the radio, the university is hurting itself and Black Bear fans, not to mention putting WZON between a rock and hard place.

The university’s exposure will be reduced because of scheduling conflicts, UMaine fans will get gypped out of games they want to hear, and WZON will be forced to take the complaint calls.

There has to be a better way.

– Pete Warner, BDN

I am responding to the Sounding Off letter from Tom Rushmore Sr. of Orrington in the (March 14-15) edition of the BDN.

I couldn’t agree more with what he says about more coverage of the “traditional” outdoor sports of hunting and fishing. First, let me say there will never be another Bud Leavitt. He was one of a kind and no scribe around will ever take his place. Tom Hennessey does a heck of a job, but once a week is not enough.

Granted, there are other outdoor publications around such as The Maine Sportsman and SAM members get their monthly newsletter – both excellent. But I do believe on the back page of the (March 14) BDN it is advertised that 200,000 readers will see these ads. Stands to reason 200,000 readers would see something written about the outdoors. Seems like all we get to read about from the outdoors now is when someone is killed snowmobiling, shot while hunting, or drowned while fishing. Effective journalism should promote the great outdoors in the state of Maine.

It wouldn’t be necessary to find another Gene Hill or Gordon MacQuarrie or Ed Zern (does anybody recognize those names?), just find someone who has lived a life in the outdoors, willing to share their knowledge and experience, pay ’em a reasonable salary, and get the readers a daily outdoor column in this paper again. Thank you very much for your time.

– Alan Smith, Brooklin

Andy Bedard has sampled the big time at Boston College, now it’s time to come home and play basketball at the University of Maine.

Bedard, a former star at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, announced Wednesday that he is transferring from BC, but has not decided on a new school.

At BC, Bedard showed that he can play with big-time players, especially at the start of the season when he filled in for starter Scoonie Penn and averaged 10 points and 3 assists a game. When Penn returned from his academic probation, however, Bedard’s minutes went way down.

The sophomore guard discovered the hard way that big-time athletics can be tough. He’s a good player, but at BC, his coach thought there were better players and decided to play them. Given more of a chance, under a different coach, the outcome could have been different.

It’s easy to understand Bedard’s inititial decision to attend BC. It’s Big East basketball against the best players in the nation. Many of the games are televised on ESPN, the crowds are 10,000 or better, and the school is in a major metropolitan area.

At BC, Bedard showed he was a good player who could compete with the nation’s best.

At Maine, Bedard could be a great player who could help a mediocre program take a step up.

Some basketball fans in eastern Maine may have a difficult time remembering Bedard. Here’s a refresher: During his junior year at Mountain Valley he averaged 31.8 points, nine rebounds, and five assists a game.

He made a memorable appearance at the Bangor Auditorium on March 3, 1994, when he scored a record-breaking 53 points, including eight 3-pointers, to lead Mountain Valley to a state-game victory over Camden-Rockport.

If a comparison is needed, then think of Bedard as a Matt Rossignol type, but add more strength, quickness, and scoring range.

UMaine basketball fans would love the chance to support a native ballplayer with Bedard’s talent.

– Joe McLaughlin, BDN

Readers may submit “Sounding Off” comments to the Bangor Daily News’ Sports Desk at P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402-1329. Our fax number is (207) 990-8092. All comments will be edited for accuracy, clarity, content, and taste.