Goodbye, WABI; hello, Maine Public Broadcasting.

A week after the Maine Principals’ Association turned down two bids by Bangor television station WABI (Channel 5) to broadcast the Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament, Maine Public Broadcasting Service is poised to step into the breach.

Officials at Maine PBS confirmed Thursday that they have been invited by the MPA to submit a bid for the rights to the EM Class A tourney.

“Yes, so we’re, at this point, looking over the possibilities of submitting a bid for Class A,” said Maine PBS spokeswoman Rhonda Morin. “If we found it was fiscally responsible and we could either absorb it into our budget or raise the funds necessary somewhere else, we would then submit a bid.

“If we find out differently, we would not, but we will work very hard toward being able to submit a bid because this is a very important part of Maine broadcasting and significant for the state.”

Maine PBS has been airing live coverage of the Eastern and Western Maine Classes B-C-D tournaments for the last 23 years. The MPA’s rejection of WABI’s bids last week ended a 50-year run of live Class A tourney coverage by the Bangor CBS affiliate. Maine PBS submitted a bid in August to keep its Classes B-C-D tourney rights for another three years, but the MPA has yet to accept or reject it.

MPA executive director Dick Durost is attending a conference through Monday and was unavailable for comment.

Morin said there’s no deadline for a bid, but Maine PBS would like to get things settled as soon as possible. Having TV rights to all four classification tournaments is certainly attractive.

“It is a big expense, so that would be our number one complication,” Morin explained. “Of course, it’s something we’re very interested in broadcasting because basketball has one of our largest audiences for the whole year, so it would be a great opportunity for us.”

Morin said although the B-C-D tourney broadcasts are not a moneymaker for Maine Public Broadcasting’s statewide network, the fact that the broadcasts annually attract MPBS’ largest audience of the year – and the fact that MPBS is a non-profit entity – makes them a programming staple.

And unlike WABI, the presence of non-local (north of Augusta) teams in the semifinals and/or finals isn’t as troublesome to MPBS as it would be to a Bangor-area station.

“Because we are a statewide organization, we have the ability to get these games to many people in the state who wouldn’t ordinarily receive them,” Morin said. “That would be another feather in our cap in terms of being able to offer quality programming to the people of Maine.”

As for WABI, the hole in its local sports programming schedule left by the loss of tournament coverage may be partially filled by another local sports staple.

“Our options are pretty limited, but one of the more attractive ones is expanding our UMaine sports coverage,” said WABI general manager Mike Young. “The University of Maine would like that and based on the ratings, our viewers would be very supportive.”

And since good ratings mean good advertising support, local sponsors should be supportive as well.

Despite WABI’s loss of a big, traditional programming event, Young said he wishes MPBS well in its pursuit of Class A tourney TV rights.

“Maine Public Broadcasting has done an outstanding job with their tournament coverage over the years,” he said. “I hope the MPA does find an alternate clearance elsewhere because its bigger than Channel 5 and bigger than the MPA because it’s so popular.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net