Celtics find new home with WABI, WRKD

Boston Celtics fans will have to train themselves to tune in a different station in Bangor to hear their beloved Kelly Green-and-White pros in action.

In the first of several moves Bangor radio station WABI (910 AM) and fellow members of Clear Channel Radio’s 22-member Maine empire have in the works, WABI and Rockland’s WRKD (1450 AM) have signed on with Boston flagship station WWZN (1510 AM) to carry all Celtics regular season and playoff games this coming season.

CCR members WABI and WRKD will be two of the five stations in Maine and 17 stations in New England in the Celtics’ radio network. The others in Maine are Skowhegan’s WSKW (1160 AM), Gardiner’s WFAU (1280 AM), and Westbrook’s WJAE (1440 AM).

“This may not be our last move, but it’s our big one right now,” said George Hale, WABI’s operations manager and sports director.

The Celtics have been aired by Bangor all-sports station WZON (620 AM) the last several years, but many of the games were not aired due to conflicts with University of Maine or local high school sports broadcasts.

“We will have some conflicts, like if Bangor’s playing Brewer, but I wouldn’t think much more than 20 percent of the Celtics games would be JIP’d [joined in progress] and most of those would only involve missing maybe 10 to 20 minutes of game time,” said Hale, who is also coordinating efforts to significantly beef up the local high school game coverage provided by most of CCR’s Bangor and Downeast area stations.

It’s all part of the newfound power and flexibility offered to WABI since its April 1st sale to Texas-based Clear Channel, the largest station group owner in the United States.

Clear Channel’s other Maine stations include Belfast’s WBFB (104.7 FM), WLKE-FM (99.1 FM) of Bar Harbor, WGUY (102.1 FM) of Dexter, WVOM (103.9 FM) of Howland, Searsport’s WBYA (101.7 FM), WKSQ (94.5 FM) of Ellsworth, and Winter Harbor’s WNSX (97.7 FM).

“We’ve been looking at sports since day one, when I first met with them [CCR representatives], and see what was available,” Hale said. “This week, we’re in the formative stages of a new approach to high school broadcasts.

“This Friday night, WABI will carry Bangor at Messalonskee. We’re also going to do the Brewer-Belfast game on WGUY, with 50,000 watts of coverage in both markets. We’re also planning to add the Brewer at Winslow game the following Saturday next week.”

According to Hale, the idea is for WABI to carry more live coverage of Bangor, Brewer, and John Bapst games in the Greater Bangor market, but it doesn’t stop there.

“WGUY will become a major player in the Bangor market for sports. Brewer and Nokomis, we feel, are underserved schools. Our Downeast stations will also cover Ellsworth and MDI sports with WLKE and WNSX.”

Even all-talk station WVOM may get into the act with its formidable 100,000-watt power.

“WVOM probably won’t be doing much sports, but we are looking at doing major weekend events like state championships with them where we could go to wide area coverage,” said Hale.

More wearing of the green

For the third straight year, Fox Sports Net New England will televise 80 of the Boston Celtics’ 82 regular season games beginning with an Oct. 30th contest at Cleveland. Celtics preseason coverage has already begun. In all, eight preseason games are being broadcast with the next coming today at 7 p.m. (at Charlotte).

Mike Gorman and Celtic Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn will handle play-by-play and color commentary, respectively for their 21st season together. They are the longest-running broadcast team in America, according to a FSNNE press release. They began their careers together in 1979 calling Providence College basketball.

Radio play-by-play is being called by Sean Grande, former voice of Boston University hockey, football and basketball on WABU-TV and WBUR FM radio. He was also sports director at Boston radio station WEEI and called the Hockey East game of the week on Fox Sports. Former Celtic Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell is back to be handle color commentary.

Andrew Neff’s On the Air column is published each Tuesday. He can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.