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Almost four years after taking the job as the sports director for Bangor television station WLBZ (Channel 2), Wayne Harvey has become a free agent.
Station general manager Judy Horan and Harvey both confirmed that Harvey’s contract would not be renewed.
“All I know is I’m getting done December 1st. They just said it wasn’t working out,” Harvey said. “My contract was up [Sept. 1], but they decided to extend it for three months and said that was about it. They didn’t really say anything one way or the other. I don’t know what their reasoning was or what their plans are.”
“We have a couple different ideas on what we’d like to do with sports specifically and since Wayne’s contract was up about the same time, we decided it was a good time to make that change,” said Horan. “Wayne is a good sports anchor and we certainly wish him the best. We’re all parting as friends, but we thought that given the changes we’re talking about, it would be best to do it with someone else.”
The 29-year-old Harvey has been with WLBZ for five years. He worked part-time at the station before becoming the sports director in February 2000.
The Patten native and Katahdin High School graduate had been a broadcaster at Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) for four years before working for WLBZ.
“Hey, I got a chance to do it. For someone who didn’t have a background in television, they gave me a shot and I had a blast,” said Harvey, who earned a communications degree from the New England School of Communications in 1993.
Harvey, who lives with wife Courtney and 18-month-old daughter Mackenzie in Bangor, doesn’t know what he’ll do next.
“I’m exploring different options,” he said. “I may even want to get out of it entirely. There’s a lot of long nights and six-, seven-day weeks, and you’re on the road a lot. I have a family at home I’d like to go see.”
As for what WLBZ will do about its sports coverage and hiring Harvey’s replacement, Horan could offer few details, but she did stress that WLBZ’s sports coverage would not be handled by Portland sister station WCSH.
“It’s definitely not a consolidation,” she said. “We don’t think it would work to the advantage of Bangor viewers because we think sports is highly local and we want whatever we’re doing in sports to be of value to our viewers.
“I don’t have anything I can really put down into words, but it’s definitely not having more sports out of Portland. We expect to have it more spelled out by the end of the year and we hope to have it all implemented by the end of the year.”
Maine Hockey Monthly on ice
Maine Hockey Monthly – a 30-minute show featuring highlights, features and interviews with University of Maine Black Bear coaches and players – will not be back for a sixth season.
Bangor TV station WVII has given the show the cold shoulder despite its popularity.
“We’ve always had good feedback on it,” said WVII sports director Nate Long, the show’s host for the last three years. “We’ve gotten more response from that than most of the things we do because people from all over the area are Maine hockey fans and they watch that show. I don’t know what it got for ratings, if there were any, because it was only once a month, but I think more people watched that than many people realized.
“I know coach [Tim] Whitehead’s disappointed we’re not doing it and I know the school wanted to keep it.”
As for the reasons the show has been canceled, Long couldn’t offer an explanation.
“That’s a good question. I guess I’m probably not the right person to ask,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure what the reason or reasons were for not doing the show this year.”
Attempts to reach station general manager Mike Palmer were unsuccessful Thursday.
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or aneff@bangordailynews.net
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