Local radio to air plenty of high school playoff action

With high school’s spring sports schedule now in its postseason phase for all sports, local radio station officials are scrambling around daily to make, and sometimes remake, broadcast plans.

Schedule conflicts, starting times, and weather are the main factors program directors are wrestling with while trying to determine which games they can air.

All-sports station WZON (620 AM) and WABI (910 AM) – two Bangor stations – are providing the most coverage of baseball and softball teams in the Greater Bangor area.

“We’ll wait and see who wins before we decide which games we’ll do, but we’re going to try and do two a day if we can,” said WABI station and sports director George Hale. “We’ll be doing some baseball and look at softball, too. Our big four are Bangor, Brewer, Bucksport and [John] Bapst.”

WZON is also formulating its plan on a daily basis.

“I guess the formula is, we’re trying to get in as many games as we can, with as many different teams as possible,” said WZON program director Dale Duff. “We’re going to try for a doubleheader Tuesday.”

That will keep the board operators busy back at the station as WZON is airing the Bangor-Presque Isle Class A divisional quarterfinal baseball game at 3 p.m. and Class B Bucksport-Erskine Academy at 4:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, WABI expects to double up as well with Bucksport-Erskine baseball and then Brewer-Nokomis softball at 7 p.m.

Machias station WALZ (95.3 FM) and Dover-Foxcroft’s WDME (103.1 FM) are also supplementing their regular-season coverage with playoff broadcasts.

One thing WZON has in its favor that not many other stations do is the ability to “stream” broadcasts on the Internet through its Zoneradio.com Web site.

“We may have a Red Sox conflict during the Eastern Maine finals next week, but not in the afternoon, so we should be able to do either a baseball or softball game each day around 3 p.m.,” Duff said. “If it’s two games of real big interest, like maybe a Bangor-Brewer baseball game and somebody local in softball at the same time, we might split it and do one game on the Internet and another on the radio.

“Or if there was a Red Sox conflict, we could do [the high school game] on the Internet and have the Red Sox on the radio.”

Duff said WZON will do “at least” seven or eight playoff games and maybe as many as 10. WABI may be looking at anywhere from five to eight games, depending on how many local teams advance.

The way regional and state championship games are scheduled, WZON won’t have as many potential conflicts with Red Sox broadcasts.

“That should work out great for us because I believe the Red Sox are playing an interleague game at night [state championship Saturday, June 15],” Duff said. “So we could conceivably do two games if they’re starting at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. [at Mansfield Stadium] or noon and 5 p.m. [at Saint Joseph’s College].”

No early summer slack-off

So much for the lazy days of summer. Rather than wind down, WZON’s schedule is picking up the next two weeks.

In addition to high school playoffs, WZON will air NHL Stanley Cup finals series action between Carolina and Detroit, the NBA finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and New Jersey, and Saturday’s Belmont Stakes horse race.

The Sports Zone is also trying something new, something it has been trying to add for the last two years: coverage of the PGA Tour’s U.S. Open.

“It sounds crazy, but they actually do a great job with the Masters and the U.S. Open,” Duff said. “Up until a couple years ago, they did short-form coverage with live updates and stuff. Then they started doing long-form coverage with live, hole-by-hole coverage and they do a nice job with it.”

WZON will air long-form coverage from about 4-7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 15-16.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-820, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net.