January 07, 2025
ON THE AIR

New Bangor TV station to air plenty of sports

The years of non-cable or satellite viewers being shut out of the Super Bowl will end next year.

And for fans of college football, NASCAR, and Major League Baseball, help is on the way for you, too.

There’s a new station in town, and sports will make up a major part of its programming schedule. If all goes well, Bangor low-power station WCKD (Channel 30) will make its debut in early February.

“We couldn’t get the station on in time for us to do this year’s Super Bowl, which had been my goal, but we had too many technical things to work out,” said Mitch Lambert, general manager at WVII, Bangor’s ABC affiliate. WVII has a five-year contract to run and program the new station on a local marketing agreement basis.

WVII is basically leasing WCKD from Bangor PAX-TV and WB Network affiliate WBGR (Ch. 33), which owns WCKD. Bangor Communications Inc., WVII’s parent company, also has the option to buy WCKD for a preset figure at the end of the current contract.

“Our intention was to use [WCKD] as another broadcast commodity, either programming it ourselves or using it to strengthen our overall business position. This arrangement does that for us,” said James McLeod, owner and general manager of WBGR and JMAC Video Productions, the official holder of WCKD’s FCC license.

JMAC tried to buy WCKD twice from Maine Public Television before finally acquiring it after the first two successful parties were unable to fulfill purchase terms.

McLeod said JMAC’s success with WBGR, a local cable access channel, and several privately produced magazine-format video programs airing throughout New England prevented JMAC from devoting the time and effort necessary to run WCKD.

Enter WVII, which McLeod said was the most serious suitor among several stations interested in running WCKD.

“We’re trying to say, ‘We’re here to stay and we want to grow in this market,’ and this gives us an advantage we didn’t have before,” Lambert said.

Those advantages include increased flexibility, promotions ability, and exposure in the Bangor television market.

Lambert pegs Feb. 18 as the target date for the on-air debut of WCKD, which will also be on local Adelphia cable systems.

“We could very well be on sooner, but that’s the date we’re shooting for because that’s when Fox’s NASCAR coverage starts,” Lambert said. “If things go well, certainly we’ll be on sooner because I already have contracts with all these syndicated shows. Fox, and UPN, so we want to start as soon as possible.”

WCKD will be a UPN (United Paramount Network) affiliate, but will still have plenty of programming flexibility.

“Our prime time UPN lineup runs Monday through Friday from 8 to 10 p.m., so I’ve got my weekends and weekdays open, aside from Fox events,” said Lambert. “We can fill that time with sports events not available in this area.”

Those events include late-afternoon Saturday college football games not carried by other network affiliates in the market, Portland Pirates or Sea Dogs game broadcasts, local high school and college games, or even Boston Bruins games if Boston’s WSBK (UPN 38) is eventually dropped from Adelphia’s cable lineup.

“We’d like to make it local sports as much as possible and if things are available, we’d like to get ’em and plug them in,” Lambert said. “We’re hoping to do a lot of things which will get us viewers.”


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