Maine’s first television station will notch another historical first this fall.

Fifty years and seven months ago after signing on as the first TV station in this state, Bangor’s WABI (Channel 5) will become the first Maine TV station to stream its sports broadcasts on the Internet. It’s also believed to be the first of its kind in the country to do this.Thanks to a groundbreaking partnership with SyncCast, a Norwalk, Calif.,-based Internet content provider and Web site developer, WABI is making it possible for University of Maine sports fans to watch and listen to WABI’s Black Bear sportscasts on the Net.

“This is the first venture of its kind for this area. It really is kind of a cutting-edge thing to do,” said WABI program director Steve Hiltz. “The guys in Norwalk had never heard of anybody doing it. They said ‘If you guys make this work, we’d be interested in going beyond UMaine sports and other events as well.’ ”

For the time being, WABI’s one-year contract with SyncCast means viewers who don’t live in WABI’s broadcast coverage area can still access any of WABI’s 14 Black Bear sportscasts, which include three football games this fall, 10 hockey games, and a men’s basketball game.

“We may not be up and running Sept. 13 [Florida International University at Maine football telecast] for the public, but we can use that game as a test and then once it’s ready, we’ll promote it hard and go with it,” Hiltz explained.

In order to make this venture possible, WABI purchased a Web site – watchmainesports.com – along with a computer server, hardware and software.

“We set up our own server, but had no way to make it a pay-per-view proposition,” Hiltz explained. “By luck, our operations supervisor [Brian Carter] contacted these guys and they thought it was a different kind of idea that they really liked. So now they’re basically administering it and storing the material.”

This unique venture resulted from an “experimental” webcast WABI did for a Maine hockey game a few years ago. The webcast was done with a company called Broadcast America, but like many dot.com companies the last few years, it ended up failing and WABI couldn’t keep up the effort because of its prohibitive cost.

“But it’s something that’s never left our minds and something we still wanted to do,” Hiltz said. “Lately we’ve seen real networks do some streaming video so we started thinking about it again.

“We thought we may have to do it ourselves, but then we lucked out and found SyncCast. If not for finding these guys, we might still be a year or two away.”

The cost is still significant for WABI, so much so that station officials had to settle on an amount they could afford to lose in a worst-case scenario.

“If it doesn’t go well, it might cost us a few thousand,” said Hiltz.

“It’s a bit of a gamble, but we consider this a worthwhile investment,” said WABI general manager Mike Young. “And we’re certain that many Black Bear fans across the nation, and around the world, will agree.”

Next came the decision on what to charge people to access the webcasts.

“It’s funny, but the more streaming you send out, the more expensive it is,” Hiltz said. “We had to come up with a minimum and maximum cost and then tried to pick something out in between.”

That in-between cost is a $15 access fee per broadcast.

The picture quality won’t make anyone want to turn off their TV, but Hiltz said the audio is excellent and it’s not like you’re watching a silent movie-era film either.

“It’s much better on broadband. If you try to access it on dial-up, it’ll be very slow,” Hiltz said.

Countdown to kickoff

Bangor radio station WABI (910 AM) will lace ’em tonight as it airs Bangor High School’s home exhibition football game against Lewiston at 7.

The station will air all of Bangor’s games this season for the fourth straight year.

Farmington’s WKTJ (99.3 FM) will also kick off its high school football coverage tonight with Mt. Blue’s home game against Edward Little of Auburn at 7.

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