WVII picks up Maine-UConn game

Bangor television station WVII (Channel 7) has added another University of Maine women’s basketball game to its programming schedule.

Thanks to an agreement with Connecticut Public Television, which airs most of the UConn women’s home games, WVII will air Monday night’s UClive from the Hartford Civic Center.

It was a sudden and surprising turn of events for WVII officials, who have been working to secure TV rights to the game since last fall.

Until last week, it appeared game rights would be too expensive and out of reach of the Bangor ABC affiliate.

Although they wouldn’t comment on specifics of the deal, WVI Although they wouldn’t comment on specifics of the deal, WVII officials said they were able to reach an agreement that was satisfactory to both sides this week.

“We’re pretty happy. It all came down late, but looks like it’ll be very popular broadcast with local viewers,” said Mike Paquette, WVII’s sales manager. “There’s so much excitement about the game. We just announced it last night and we’ve already had a lot of phone calls.”

WVII will pick up the 7:30 p.m. game’s satellite feed, from Connecticut Public TV. Although Connecticut announcers will call the game, WVII will air its own live halftime show hosted by Rich Chrampanis and Chuck Whitney, featuring first-half highlights and high school tournament reports.

In return for paying for satellite time and a rights fee believed to be higher than the standard rate for games, WVII has been given a “significant” number of commercial breaks to use for local ad spots, most of which have already been sold.

In case you hadn’t noticed the small print at the bottom of your monthly FrontierVision cable television bill, three more channels – two of which will make sports fans happy – will be added to your family package lineup next month.

ESPN2, which has been available to subscribers as an extra, premium-type channel for several months, will join the family package on channel 96. Also joining the lineup are Atlanta superstation WTBS (Channel 17), the TV flagship of the Atlanta Braves, and the Disney Channel.

Although the additions will raise family service rates from $23.21 to $25.99, subscribers who currently have either ESPN2 or ESPN2 and Fox Sports New England (formerly SportsChannel), will notice a slight drop in their rates, from an extra $2.95 for ESPN2 and FSNE to an extra $2.78.

The latest episode of Maine Public Television’s True North show will feature a segment on 1998 U.S. Olympic skier and Maine native Kirsten Clark and Carrabassett Valley Academy.

The episode, which will air Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on MPTV, will feature an interview with Clark, a 1995 CVA graduate from Raymond.

MPTV will repeat the episode Sunday at 4:30 p.m.

Bangor’s WVII-TV will air a half-hour sports special titled 1998 NASCAR Preview with Ricky Craven Saturday at 7 p.m. The segment will feature footage and interviews with Craven, Jeff Gordon, and Terry Labonte gathered during a recent four-day tour of the Hendrick Motorsports complex in North Carolina.