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The local sportscaster landscape is changing noticeably with the addition of two new faces and the relocation of two familiar ones.
John Smist of Hermon and Tim Baier of Atlanta have joined the staff at Bangor stations WLBZ (Channel 2) and WVII (Ch. 7), respectively, as local media outlets gear up for baseline-to-baseline coverage of the Eastern Maine basketball tournaments.
It’s the onset of tourney time that has also prompted Bangor station WABI (Ch. 5) to temporarily add two seasoned sports reporters to its staff with the hiring of former WVII sports director Nate Long and former WLBZ sports director Wayne Harvey.
“I think the plan is to have much more saturation of tournament events and examine more slices of the tournament that maybe people miss because of all the game action,” said WABI sports director Tim Throckmorton. “This isn’t going to be heavy highlights all day long.
“There’s much more to what the tournament is all about. There’s all kinds of news and features there.”
Throckmorton and Keith Erickson will still handle most of the game highlights as anchors at the studio.
“It’s great to be part of this,” Long said in a station press release. “This station remains focused to local sports – and to the hometown stories behind the scenes.”
Both Long and Harvey will begin their nine-day WABI stint Friday night.
“You can’t say enough about this station’s local service – on every level,” Harvey said in the release. “That’s why they’re the ones to watch – We’re the ones to watch – for the full story on this year’s tourney.”
Long and Harvey were both cut loose by their former stations last December. Long was fired for “strategic reasons” as the station consolidated its sports staff from two to 11/2 full-time positions. Harvey’s contract was allowed to elapse because WLBZ wanted to revamp its sports coverage approach.
Baier debuted on-air Wednesday night while Smist has been on the job since Feb. 4.
“He comes at a really good time,” said WVII sportscaster Ted Lombardi. “It’ll definitely give us a chance to do a lot more local stuff.”
Maine’s a lot colder than Georgia this time of year, but Baier – who was born in New Jersey before moving to Atlanta, where he grew up – doesn’t seem to mind.
“I’ve got plenty of layers on, but it’s actually not as bad as I expected,” said the 25-year-old Boston College graduate. “The hardest part is learning how to find all the towns we’re shooting games in.”
So far, the most difficult trip was Blue Hill from Mount Desert.
“MapQuest is always a big help,” he said with a chuckle.
This is not the first time Baier’s been in Maine. He attended a conference at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine seven years ago and flew into Bangor for the trip.
Baier worked as a production coordinator for Intersport Inc. in Chicago as he was earning his Master’s Degree from Northwestern University. After that, he worked as an editor and/or associate producer for CNN Headline Sports and Fox Sports South. He’ll be both a sports and news reporter for WVII.
“That was one of the things that attracted me here was the opportunity to get my hands in both news and sports,” he said. “The others were one, coming back to New England and two, having Adam Shub here was a big selling point.
“Ever since I left Boston, I’ve been itching to get back up here and I knew Adam at Boston College.”
Unlike Baier, Smist has been hired strictly as a sports reporter, although he will be reporting with a news twist, emphasizing coverage that is “topical, local and interesting,” according to WLBZ station manager Judy Horan.
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or aneff@bangordailynews.net.
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