WABI bids to air Bears Station trying to put broadcast together

If program director Steve Hiltz and vice-president/general manager Mike Young have their way, Bangor’s WABI (Channel 5) will be the Maine television station this coming weekend.

Hiltz confirmed Monday afternoon that his station had submitted a conditional bid to the NCAA for the television broadcast rights to the University of Maine football team’s second round Division I-AA playoff game at the University of Northern Iowa.

“The contingency of the bid is that we be allowed to withdraw it within a 24-hour period if we can’t put a deal together to do the game,” Hiltz explained. “We have one little bind right now and that is finding a production truck, satellite uplink truck, and production crew to do the game.”

WABI officials have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to put together all the pieces necessary to air Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. game live from the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

WLBZ-TV (channel) 2 general president/general manager Judy Horan said Monday that her station did not submit a bid for the game by Monday’s deadline. Calls to WVII (Ch. 7) general manager Mitch Lambert were not returned, although it is believed that WVII also did not submit a bid.

For the second straight week, Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) will provide live game coverage.

After a combination of financial concerns and timing foiled WABI’s attempt to broadcast last week’s first-round game against McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., Hiltz said WABI officials redoubled their efforts this week.

“We wanted to do it last week and now we’re looking at this as a second chance,” said Hiltz, who added that some of the same hurdles came into play this week.

As was the case last week, there are no Iowa stations airing Saturday’s second-round game. That means that any Maine station wishing to air the game would have to do so either with their own personnel and equipment or contract an independent crew and rent equipment in Iowa to do the broadcast.

“There are some things to be worked out. Finding a crew and a truck will be the main factors right now,” said Hiltz, who said plans are still pending on whether WABI will send any of its own personnel.

Hiltz said its unclear what WABI will do, but the thinking is that if everything falls into place to be able to broadcast the game, WABI will not send anyone. If 5 p.m. Tuesday comes and WABI finds it is unable to air the game, it may send out a camera person and sports director Tim Throckmorton to do pre- and postgame coverage.

Adding to WABI’s desire to do this second-round game is the fact it already will be broadcasting Maine hockey games Friday and Saturday nights. The fact that the football game starts at 2:30 also makes it very attractive since it likely won’t run into WABI’s 6 p.m. newscast time slot.

“Yeah, with all that and the time it’s on, it makes for a very good weekend sports package for us,” said Hiltz, who explained that he and Young are scouring the Iowa area for any available production people with help from a local Fox network affiliate which has aired some Panthers games in the past.

“We need five cameras, three or four technicians, a director, audio person, camera shader, replay guy, graphics operator, technical director, play-by-play announcer and color commentator,” he said. “We figure we need a minimum of 15 people to do it.”

The NCAA bid is purely a monetary amount from WABI, which also has to include information on its coverage area, broadcast relationship with the school (Maine), quality of production, and prior experience with NCAA sporting events. WABI shapes up very well in these areas with a long broadcast association with UMaine and several NCAA women’s basketball tournament and hockey playoff game telecasts.

Now everyone at WABI, as well as Black Bear football fans, will just have to sit and wait.

The envelopes please …

The nation’s top collegiate players will be honored on the Home Depot College Football Awards show on ESPN Thursday night. The two-hour special starts at 9 p.m. and features such presentations as the Maxwell (best overall player) and Dave O’Brien National Quarterback Award, the Outland (interior lineman) and Chuck Bednarik Trophy (defensive player). Plus the Doak Walker (running back), Biletnikoff (wide receiver), Jim Thorpe (defensive back) and Lou Groza (placekicker) Awards.

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.