Less than nine years ago, the idea of an all-sports radio station in the Pine Tree State, let alone the Bangor area, was as foreign a concept to Mainers as the Patriots winning a Super Bowl.

Now, New England is home to a Super Bowl champion and Maine has at least four all-sports stations.

The latest to join the club is Rockland station WRKD (1450 AM), which serves listeners in the Knox County area.

“We definitely are all-sports and we’ve been that way, 24-7, since December 1st,” said WRKD operations manager and program director Don Shields. “We are a little different from some of the others though in that we’re a mix of ESPN Radio and Fox Sports programming.”

Shields starts the day off with a live talk show running 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. weekdays. After that, it’s Fox’s Tony Bruno from 8 to 10 a.m., ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser from 10 a.m. to noon, Fox’s Jim Rome from noon to 3 p.m., Fox’s Kiley and Booms show (3-7 p.m.), ESPN’s Gamenight from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. (pre-empted when necessary by high school game broadcasts), and Fox’s Jim Daniels from 2 to 6 a.m.

Ratings periods for Maine radio only come twice a year and with the next one not due until April, Shields has no numbers to evaluate the popularity of the switch from news-talk to sports, but he says listener feedback has been positive.

“The first day, it was probably 70-30 against us, but since day two, it’s running about 8-to-1 to 10-to-1 ratio of more people who are happy with it,” he said. “Actually we’ve been pleased. It’s obviously a majority male audience. I was doing a morning talk show and there were some people saddened when that went off, but there isn’t a day that goes by when I’m out doing a game or something that someone doesn’t come up and say that they like the format.”

Shields said the switch came as a result of a desire not to duplicate what Boothbay Harbor’s WCME (96.7 FM), a fellow Clear Channel network station, was doing with its news-talk format which includes popular afternoon shows by Rush Limbaugh and Howie Carr.

“Our feeling was to take a strength for this station and something that’s not really served in this area and carve out a niche for ourselves,” Shields explained.

WRKD has also beefed its local sports coverage up as well with 36 regular-season high school basketball game broadcasts. It will also simulcast live Eastern and Western Maine tournament game broadcasts through Rockland sister station WMCM (103.3 FM). WRKD will cover all games involving Rockland, Camden Hills, Georges Valley, Lincoln Academy, Boothbay, Wiscasset, Erskine Academy, Belfast, Mount View, Searsport, Vinalhaven, North Haven, Islesboro, Medomak Valley, Brunswick, Morse and Gardiner.

Other additions to WRKD’s programming lineup include the Boston Celtics, NFL playoffs, Westwood One NCAA Tournament games, and coming this spring, the Boston Red Sox.

New network for Big 12, PAC-10

According to Associated Press reports, Atlanta-based superstation WTBS acquired the television rights to Saturday night Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC-10) and Big 12 college football games Monday from Fox Sports Net.

The five-year deal, which starts next season, covers 11 games per season through 2006. TBS last carried college football in 1991.

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