‘Tis the season for local television and radio stations to get their Sox on.
With the start of the Boston Red Sox regular season only 10 days away, local Red Sox network affiliates are ironing out last-minute details in their broadcast contracts.
This year, those details are more few and far between as there were no changes in ownership of Red Sox flagship stations or contract status on either the television or radio side.
“That did make it easier,” said Steve Hiltz, program director at Bangor TV station WABI (Channel 5). “This year was basically an easy renewal process. They sent us the schedule, we picked the ones we wanted, let them know which ones we wanted to do, and sent the rest over to James.”
James is James McLeod, co-owner and general manager of Bangor TV station WBGR (Channel 33). This is the fifth straight year of a cooperative arrangement between WABI and WBGR which allows non-cable and cable viewers alike in the Greater Bangor area to watch as many at least 67 live Sox game broadcasts.
“I believe we have about 50 games,” McLeod said. “It always fluctuates depending on rainouts, reschedules and stuff like that.”
WABI, which has been televising Red Sox games continuously since 1995, will air its first Red Sox telecast Saturday, April 14 (vs. the New York Yankees).
This year’s total is down a bit as several games have been added to the schedules of the Fox Network, ESPN and ESPN2-TV. Instead of the 80 games available in past seasons, WABI (19) and WBGR (48) are sharing a 67-game pie this year. WBGR, which is in the midst of a five-game preseason broadcast schedule with the last two games coming up Saturday and Tuesday, will air the Sox season-opener against at Baltimore Monday, April 2, at 3 p.m.
“We’re primarily doing a lot of weekday games and WABI is doing mostly weekend games,” McLeod said. “It’s been a great arrangement for both stations and it’s certainly been a big benefit to local viewers. We’ve all gotten something out of it.”
New England Sports Network’s portion is up one game this year, from 85 to 86.
On the radio dial, 12 Maine stations are part of the 50-member Red Sox Radio Network, which includes all-sports Bangor station WZON (620 AM) radio as well as stations in Camden (WQSS 102.5 FM), Ellsworth (WDEA 1370 AM), Houlton (WHOU 100.1), and Skowhegan (WSKW 1160 AM).
At press time, longtime Red Sox affiliate station WDME (103.1 FM) in Dover-Foxcroft had not officially renewed its contract, according to Jason Wolfe, an official at Boston Sox flagship station WEEI (850 AM).
The other stations are Fairfield’s WCTB (93.5 FM), Portland’s WJAB (1440 AM), Biddeford’s WIDE (1400 AM), Farmington’s WKTJ (99.3 FM), Mexico’s WTBM (100.7 FM), Norway’s WOXO (92.7 FM), and Topsham’s WCLZ (98.9 FM).
Encore showing in doubt
Despite the enormous interest generated by Saturday’s Class A state championship basketball game between Bangor and Deering of Portland, area fans shouldn’t get their hopes up for a rebroadcast.
“We’ve had a few people ask us about it, but with all the other stuff we’ve been working on [primarily Maine hockey NCAA Tournament TV rights] to sit down and even consider it,” Hiltz said.
Although this is one repeat a lot of local viewers are clamoring for, Hiltz said it’s not something executives at WABI have had a chance to discuss in depth.
“It’s been brought up by a couple people internally, but we haven’t had serious discussions about it because we really don’t know where we’d put it right now,” Hiltz explained.
There are also other factors to consider, according to Hiltz.
“It would set an uncommon precedent for us to do that because it’s not something we’ve done,” he said. “Offhand, my first thought is it probably wouldn’t occur as a rebroadcast, but you can’t rule anything out.”
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