Hale returns to WABI airwaves after lengthy illness

For three of the last four weeks, the mornings haven’t seemed the same to the WABI (910 AM) radio audience, and Friday nights sounded different to Bangor High School football broadcast listeners.

There was something missing. It was the unmistakable voice of Bangor radio legend George Hale.

The 71-year-old Hale made his return to the studio this week after a three-week struggle with his gallbladder that required open abdominal surgery.

“I’m back at the station and still under a doctor’s care,” said Hale, who was working on his station’s high school basketball schedule Thursday morning. “I’m still pretty weak, but I’m getting better every day and I’m putting in three or four hours a day. I have some difficulty eating, which is a novelty for me.”

Hale returned to his familiar seat in the studio Monday and is working a shortened 8 to 10 a.m. on-air shift each weekday. Although he won’t do play-by-play for any of Saturday’s state championship football games, he plans to return to the sidelines and call the action for the Dec. 9 Bangor-Lawrence basketball game in Bangor.

Hale didn’t let his confinement keep him from keeping up on the sports scene.

“I watched every sport I could while I was in there. Jerry Springer at 3 a.m. is not exactly my cup of tea,” he said with a chuckle. “And I listened to the games on the radio and actually got to go to the Maine-Villanova game for a half.”

Hale’s problems began one Sunday night when he became so ill he had to visit Eastern Maine Medical Center’s emergency room.

“After a battery of tests, they thought I might have a heart problem. They went in and discovered one of the old blockages I had was flaring up so they put two stents in and had to put me on a blood thinner,” he explained. “That gave me problems and then they found I did have a gallbladder problem.”

Doctors did not want to perform surgery on Hale immediately because of the stents and blood thinner.

“So they were draining me with a tube in my side and then it got to the point they had to have open abdominal surgery and took it out,” he said.

Another complication was the presence of fluids in Hale’s chest cavity, which doctors had to drain out with chest tubes.

“The upshot of it is I spent the better part of three weeks in the hospital,” he said. “I was out for one day and then had to go back and stay two more. Now I’m home.”

Hale is seeing doctors once or twice a week and is on a heavy dose of antibiotics. He has been able to start walking again and he’s also trying to get back his appetite. In the meantime, he’s eating a lot of oatmeal and drinking Ensure.

“I’ve lost 15-20 pounds. I’m on the extreme weight loss diet,” he said.

Hale grew up in New York but has spent most of his life in Maine and has called game action at the Eastern Maine basketball tournament the last 48 years. He has called University of Maine sports action on either radio or television for more than five decades.

“I’ve had a tremendous amount of support from my company and family and friends. The University of Maine sent me a game ball and the coaching staff and players from Bangor’s football team came to see me or called,” he said. “I really appreciate that and it makes me feel grateful.”

Bangor High tailback Mike Prentiss visited him and gave Hale his Rams tie tack team medal.

“He called it his good luck charm, and he brought it to me because he figured I needed it,” Hale said, his voice cracking slightly. “That was nice.”

Championship Tripleheader

Six ClearChannel radio stations will air all three of Saturday’s high school state championship football games live from Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium.

The 11 a.m. Class A, 2:30 p.m. C and 6 p.m. B games will all be heard on Bangor’s WABI (910 AM), Winter Harbor’s WNSX (97.7 FM), Rockland’s WRKD (1450 AM), Boothbay Harbor’s WCME (96.7 FM), Gardiner’s WFAU (1280 AM), and Madison’s WIGY (97.5 FM).

“It makes a lot of sense for us,” said WABI program director George Hale. “We’ll cover the coastal, Central Maine, Down East and Eastern Maine areas. From the state championship standpoint, I don’t recall anyone doing anything as big as this.”

Don Shields, Don Brown, Eric Leimbach and Mike Violette will call the games. Shields and Violette will work the first two games.

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