MPBC will evaluate ‘A’ deal Two-year contract possible after first year of additional games

The contracts are written and on the way. All that’s left is to review and sign on the dotted lines.

That’s the status of the two deals Maine Public Broadcasting has agreed to with the Maine Principals’ Assocation for exclusive television broadcast rights to Eastern and Western Maine Classes A, B, C, and D regional semifinals and final games plus the state finals in all four classes.

“My understanding is it’s the same basic agreement as we verbally agreed to,” said Bob Way, MPBC media coordinator. “We’re just waiting for the paperwork to come in and then there’s a 60-day period to raise the money necessary to pay the production costs.”

MPBC officials put those costs at $206,920, seven percent of which ($14,484) includes the rights fee paid to the MPA for a three-year B-C-D deal and one-year A pact.

“The reason the “A” deal is just one year is at the end of the year, we’ll sit back and evaluate how the broadcasts went, and then take another look at it to see if we want to re-up for another deal,” Way explained.

If the answer is “yes”, MPBC would likely try to ink a separate, two-year deal to continue broadcasting the “A” games. That way, both the “A” and B-C-D deals would end at the same time and allow both parties to renegotiate a single deal for all four classes.

Bangor station WABI (Channel 5), which had broadcast Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals the last 50 years, could not agree with the MPA on a viable deal and opted out after two contract bids were rejected by the MPA.

MPBC is not airing quarterfinal games due to vastly increased production costs, which Way estimated would balloon up to $413,000 if the contract called for MPBC to air all 16 East and West A quarterfinals. It would also mean MPBC would go from airing 56 total games to 72.

Hockey East on the dial

In conjunction with the New England Hockey Journal, Hockey East has launched a new radio segment called “This Week in Hockey East.”

The 15-minute segment will close each edition of The New England Hockey Journal Radio Show, which airs Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Brockton, Mass.,-based WBET (1460 AM) and a few other New England radio stations.

The segment will feature recaps of recent games and a look at the upcoming weekend’s headline matchups. It will also feature an interview with a Hockey East personality. The show itself features hosts Mike Colangelo and Bob Loeber and will run for 39 weeks through the college hockey season all the way through the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

Hockey East’s involvement with the show resulted from a renewed partnership between the league and Seamans Media, which publishes the New England Hockey Journal. The partnership allows Hockey East shared control of the TWIHE segment and the Journal will get increased exposure (linked stories on HockeyEastOnline.com and partial sponsorship of the Hockey East championships trivia challenge) in the league.

Maine Hockey Monthly returns

Bangor television station WVII (Channel 7) will start the fifth season of “Maine Hockey Monthly,” a half-hour special chronicling the month that was for the University of Maine men’s hockey team, this Sunday.

The first show; which features game highlights, a player feature, comments from coach Tim Whitehead and host Nate Long, and an ongoing feature called Black Bear Off-Ice Challenge; will air Sundays at 6 p.m. on WVII and be rebroadcast Mondays at 7 p.m. on WCKD (Channel 10).

The other shows will air Dec. 8, Jan. 12, Feb. 9, March 2, and sometime shortly after the season concludes. The first show will feature interviews with former Black Bear Niko Dimitrakos, who is playing for the AHL’s Cleveland Barons, and current player Todd Jackson.

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