The good news continues to roll in for local sports radio listeners, especially those who follow high school sports.

Despite the recent purchase of another local radio station by an out-of-state conglomerate, local sports fans have nothing to fear.

“We’re going to be in the sports business in a big way. Local sports around here is key,” said Keryn Smith, a vice-president and general manager of Clear Channel Radio, which recently bought Bangor radio station WABI (910 AM) and sister station WWBX (97.1 FM) from Gopher Hill Communications for $3.75 million.

“The safest thing to say is we’re working right now on how much we can increase [high school sports coverage],” added the Belfast native. “We’re very interested in pursuing it and branching out with it if we can.”

Texas-based Clear Channel, the largest station group owner in the United States, also owns 22 other Maine stations, including WBFB (104.7 FM) in Belfast, WLKE-FM (99.1 FM) of Bar Harbor, WGUY (102.1 FM) of Dexter, WVOM (103.9 FM) of Howland, WBYA (101.7 FM) of Searsport, WKSQ (94.5 FM) of Ellsworth, and WNSX (97.7 FM) of Winter Harbor.

“There will be no changes,” said longtime WABI announcer and station manager George Hale. “Sports has been a big part of this station long before I got here.”

Hale added that the only thing currently limiting his sports schedule is the weather.

“We have a baseball schedule we’re attempting to do right now, but the weather is being unkind,” said Hale. “We hope to have 12 regular season games with Bangor and Brewer plus probably double that in the playoffs.”

Hale also plans to air some Husson College baseball games, if the schedule ever stabilizes.

Hale and the rest of the WABI crew have been broadcasting from a trailer set up near the station’s transmitter in Brewer for a year now after fire destroyed their former location in downtown Bangor. Finding a new, permanent home is an imperative for WABI’s new owners.

“It’s too bad they’ve been there out there that long,” Smith said. “I guess you could say that’s the priority for us right now. It’s probably number 1 or 2 on a list of our top five right now.”

Smith said fears by current WABI devotees that the station’s takeover by a large, national company would erase the station’s distinct local personality will prove to unfounded.

“That’s one of the good things about having the cluster of stations we have now. We’re in the position where we can absorb the costs as a group that maybe a single station couldn’t do,” said Smith. “We have a whole truck full of brand new equipment for George to do his sports on.”

Not that Hale, who has been a fixture at the station for 45 years, was ever going anywhere. Hale said nothing will keep him from hosting WABI’s morning show and calling games.

“Except the Grim Reaper, maybe,” he said with a chuckle.

Smith has big plans for the Bangor and Ellsworth-area stations under the Clear Channel umbrella.

“We’re going to gauge things this spring and summer and then hit the ground running this fall,” he said. “We’re probably going to do twice as many games on WNSX as last year. Sports on WABI for sure, along with WNSX, will be on the upswing.”