WZON retains UMaine contract 3-year deal includes possible extension

As it has for the past five years, Bangor all-sports radio station WZON will remain the home of University of Maine sports for the foreseeable future.

Four months after the deadline passed for bids to Black Bear sports radio rights, the ink is finally dry on the contract signed by officials of UMaine and the Sports Zone.

The new deal means WZON will continue to be UMaine’s flagship radio station for at least the next three years and possibly through the 2006-2007 academic year.

“We’re excited because University of Maine sports is a centerpiece of our programming,” said WZON program director Dale Duff. “We carry about 130 UMaine games from all over the country each year. We feel it helps identify us as the sports station.

“We, in essence, have been associated with the university since we came in here. We had football and basketball after coming in here in the fall of 1993. Then for three years, we had hockey and men’s basketball. For the past five years, we’ve had all the sports.”

The new deal involves an annual payment of $10,000 to UMaine along with a provision for commercials and spots promoting the university and its endeavors on WZON as well as sister stations WKIT (100.3 FM, Bangor) and Dover-Foxcroft’s WDME (103.1 FM). These spots will air in and outside game broadcasts.

“I think both parties feel there’s good value for both of us,” said John Diamond, UM’s senior director of public relations.

Game broadcasts will air primarily on WZON, but the new contract has addressed potential conflicts between sports like men’s hockey, men’s basketball and women’s basketball, which happen occasionally during the winter months.

“There is a section in the contract dealing with that,” Diamond said. “All hockey games, as well as all football games, will be on WZON. Any game conflicting with a hockey or football game will be on WZON’s internet streamer.”

In the event of a conflict between three sports contests, hockey would air on WZON, one of the basketball games would be on WZON’s Internet site (Zoneradio.com), and the other would be made available to Internet listeners through an opposing school’s Internet broadcast service through a link on WZON’s Web site – provided one is available.

“Most every school in the conferences Maine’s involved in broadcast games on the Internet, so virtually all regularly-broadcasted sports will be available to listeners,” Diamond said.

In addition to the major sports, WZON will also air selected softball, women’s ice hockey, field hockey and soccer games. The number of broadcasts for each sport will be determined by WZON. All UMaine baseball conference games will be aired, with the exception of any which conflict with Boston Red Sox broadcasts. When there is a conflict, the Red Sox will air on the radio and the Black Bears will be on Zoneradio.com.

“People now accept and use the Internet as another radio,” said Duff. “I believe for anybody who has kids, the computer’s on all the time, and this is another way they’ve found to put it to use.”

Having WDME as part of the Zoneradio family gives Duff more flexibility in the coming years for programming the UM sports broadcast schedule.

“It does give us another affiliate outlet. We’re still working on their schedule and getting WDME in our building so we can run everything out of here [on Broadway in Bangor],” Duff explained. “They’re likely going to carry University of Maine games, but until it’s completely changed over, we’re not going to worry about it.”

The deal took months to put together. UMaine director of purchasing Bob Eslin had hoped to have things wrapped up by early winter, but it took longer than anyone anticipated to dot all the “I’s” and cross the “T’s.”

“What happens is they have a lot of people on their end who have to OK things and we to have to have various people sign off on it, so it has to keep getting sent back and forth,” said Duff. “I was pretty confident it was all going to get done, but it takes time.”

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.