WGUY, WNSX to join WABI’s tourney team

When it starts its fourth decade of start-to-finish, wall-to-wall coverage of the Eastern Maine basketball tournament next month, Bangor radio station WABI will have a little company this year.

Although WABI (910 AM) is the only station to provide continuous and complete live tourney coverage for the past three decades, it won’t have that distinction as teams and fans start funneling through the Bangor Auditorium doors and turnstiles this year. But that’s quite all right with longtime station manager and program director George Hale.

“This falls in line with the other things we intend to do,” said Hale. “This will be good for people who are interested in schools that don’t get coverage.”

What “this” is involves the inclusion of two fellow Clear Channel Communications-owned stations – Dexter’s WGUY (102.1 FM) and Bar Harbor’s WNSX (97.7 FM) – in WABI’s total tournament coverage format.

“This is really gonna be important for people in two areas: central and northern Maine with WGUY and the coastal, Down East area with WNSX,” Hale said.

With WGUY’s listener coverage area extending from Millinocket to Waterville and WNSX’s blanketing the coastal island area in Washington County, WABI’s tourney coverage, which was primarily limited to the Greater Bangor area and many parts of Penobscot county, will be greatly amplified in terms of geographic area.

Although tourney fans will be excited by the news, fans of the Boston Celtics may not be, as WABI’s tourney coverage means all Celtics radio broadcasts will be pre-empted by live tournament games.

“We thought about maybe having the Celtics on one station with the tournament on the others, but once we decided to do the entire thing on all three stations, we thought it was only right to be consistent and keep the schedule the same for all three,” Hale said. “What we’re saying to the audience is: ‘We’ll never leave you at the tournament.’ ”

Hale said their expanded tourney coverage is the next step in local sports coverage. The first was taken last fall when WABI and WGUY aired live high school football game broadcasts, to which Hale said the station received “outstanding response.”

WABI, WNSX, and WGUY are all part of Clear Channel’s 22-station radio empire in Maine. Rather than stifle local control, Clear Channel has given the OK to operations manager Jeff Pierce and general manager Kieran Smith to run WABI and other stations based on what local listeners are interested in.

WABI still follows an oldies/nostalgia music format while WGUY recently switched to jazz and WNSX uses a classic rock format.

“We’re not changing into all-sports stations,” Hale cautioned. “But we are going to be very aggressive in seeking sports which we think the audience may be underserved in.”

Stations usually secure radio and TV rights to tournament coverage through “barter” deals in which the stations agree to provide the tournament’s governing body – the Maine Principals’ Association – with promotional and informational ads free of charge.

Hale says this current arrangement may actually expand even more in coming years.

“A lot of our input will come from anecdotal evidence, but we have no doubt that this is going to be a great success,” Hale explained. “In the coming years, it will expand. I don’t think it will contract.”

Andelman says adios to WEEI

After more than a decade on the air, colorful sports talk personality Eddie Andelman won’t be taking calls any more on Boston radio station WEEI (850 AM).

According to published accounts, station officials said Andelman planned to leave the station in February, but the two parties decided to part ways immediately after word that Andelman was leaving appeared in The Boston Globe.

The 65-year-old Andelman, who started in radio at age 33 and later co-hosted the “A team” with Dale Arnold, reportedly made the choice himself. He is rumored to be ready to join rival station WWZN (1510 AM) after his contract expires on Feb. 28.

Andrew Neff’s On the air column is published each Tuesday. He can be reached at 990-8205 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.