WLBZ’s Solari gains new job Former reporter working in Florida

Jeff Solari has left his job in Bangor as WLBZ-TV promotions director for a similar position with another NBC affiliate in the Mobile, Ala.-Pensacola, Fla., area, the nation’s 60th largest TV market.

Solari, who was also the sports director and a reporter for WMDI (107.7 FM) in Bar Harbor and the radio play-by-play voice of the University of Maine women’s basketball team for Bangor station WZON (620 AM), is the new promotion and marketing director for sister stations Pensacola’s WPMI (Channel 15) and WJTC (Ch. 44), a United Paramount Network affiliate in Mobile, Ala.

“Things are going great here for my third day on the job,” said Solari, who was a WLBZ-TV sports reporter before taking the promotions job.

The 29-year-old Solari, who worked at Bangor’s WLBZ (Ch. 2) for 6 1/2 years, said two things immediately brought home the degree of his geographic move.

“College football is huge down here. I found that out right off,” he said. “Other than that, the only thing I’ve noticed is it really is as hot as they say it is. It’s about 93 every day with about 90 percent humidity. Air conditioning is a necessity.”

Solari joins girlfriend Catherine Pegram, who worked in Bangor as a reporter for WLBZ from 1995 through 1998. Pegram is a morning anchor for Pensacola ABC affiliate WEAR.

WZON to cover Legion tourney

Bangor radio station WZON (620 AM) will offer live coverage of the American Legion Zone 1 baseball tournament in Bangor this weekend.

Due to conflicts with Boston Red Sox and local auto racing coverage, the Sports Zone will broadcast a maximum of three games from Mansfield Stadium: the first game – Brewer vs. Trenton Friday at 4 p.m., Sunday’s 8 p.m. championship game, and Monday’s 6 p.m. “if-necessary” championship game.

WABI radio (910 AM) in Bangor, which planned to offer extensive coverage of American Legion games this summer, has not aired any regular season games and will not broadcast any of the tourney games.

“Well, we wanted to do all of the tournament games but we couldn’t do it with our NASCAR auto racing broadcast contract, with races on Sundays so we decided not to do it this year,” said WABI program director George Hale. “But we are interested in doing state tournament games, depending on which of the four teams advance out of the zone tournament.”

The Drive, a nationally syndicated radio sports talk show based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., returned to Maine last week.

Show hosts Scott Kaplan and Sid Rosenberg broadcast live from Sugarloaf/USA in Carrabassett Valley Thursday, July 15 and from Gepetto’s Restaurant in Sugarloaf’s resort village Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day.

Both hosts visited Sugarloaf and all-sports radio stations WHQO (107.9 FM) and WSKW (1160 AM) in Skowhegan last February, and said they had such a good time they promised to return. Both men also took part in an 18-hole golf tournament Thursday.