Black Bear basketball dominates the radio and television airwaves this weekend as the men and women play for conference titles.

The women will tip things off as they take on the winner of Thursday’s Albany-Hartford quarterfinal in a 6 p.m. Friday semifinal at Chase Arena in West Hartford, Conn. Should top-seeded Maine win, it will play for the America East conference title at 4 p.m. Saturday. Even if Maine loses Friday, both games will air on local TV.

The Maine men’s AE championship game clash with defending champion Vermont Saturday at 11:30 a.m. will air live on ESPN.

Bangor Fox Network affiliate WFVX (Channel 22) will air the Maine women’s semifinal game and the AE title game live, thanks to an exclusive deal with America East.

“We called them after last weekend and asked about the possibility of airing Maine’s games,” said Gene Hardin, promotions manager for WVII. “After confirming we had the games around 2 p.m. Monday, we sold out all our advertising spots for both games over the next 48 hours.”

Bangor ABC affiliate WVII (Ch. 7), which operates and programs WFVX, aired Maine’s regular season finale against Hartford last Saturday. America East also offered WVII the chance to air the Maine men’s AE tourney semifinal against Stony Brook, but station officials declined due to program schedule conflicts with live NASCAR racing on WFVX and an NBA doubleheader on WVII. The game was aired by Bangor’s WABI (Ch. 5) instead.

“We didn’t have much notice and I try not to upset the schedule that abruptly, especially with the popularity of NASCAR,” said WVII general manager Mike Palmer.

This weekend, WVII-WFVX is doubling up on Maine women’s action in the hopes that Maine will not only make the AE title game, but win it.

“We wanted both games because there will be interest in the championship game even if Maine isn’t in it, but also because we’re positive they’re going to be there,” Palmer said. “We don’t feel like we’re taking a chance because we’re so confident they’ll be in it.”

This is the fifth year in the last seven that WVII has aired UMaine games in partnership with America East, which produces several regular season games plus all semifinal and final tourney games each year. WVII-WFVX aired three UMaine regular season games this season.

“The truth is we’ve aired more Maine basketball the last five years or so than anyone, and we like it,” said Palmer. “We consider ourselves Maine’s basketball flagship station.”

Palmer said he even tried to work a simulcast deal with ESPN to air the Maine men’s game locally for non-cable and non-satellite TV viewers.

“We offered to take their signal with all their ads and no spots for ourselves – and we even offered to pay them for it – as a public service, but they wouldn’t do it for exclusivity reasons,” Palmer explained. “I can understand. It would open up a can of worms for them with other small stations if they did that.”

All UMaine games, except Friday’s women’s game, will also air live on Bangor radio station WZON (620 AM). Friday’s game will air live on WZON’s Internet broadcast on zoneradio.com.

‘Lefty’ Hale back in the studio

George Hale, longtime sports broadcaster and morning radio host, returned to the studio Tuesday after missing a week with a broken arm.

Hale, 72, broke the humerus bone in his right arm near the shoulder joint after slipping on some ice and falling on his back walk on the way to work March 1. He had to crawl back into his house to alert his wife, who called for an ambulance.

Hale, who had a plate and screws inserted during 31/2 hours of surgery and spent seven days in the hospital, said his full recovery will take one to three months. Despite pain and the loss of use of his right arm, Hale returned to work.

“If I’m going to be miserable, and I am, I’m going to be miserable in my studio where I’m most comfortable,” said Hale, who is somewhat ambidextrous. “They’ve got everything switched around so I can use my left arm.”

Hale, who had to miss the two Eastern Maine Class A tournament games he was scheduled to call Friday and Saturday, has cut his live morning radio shift at Bangor station WABI (910 AM) down from four to three hours (6-9 a.m. instead of 6-10 a.m.).

Hale and wife Jeannie have been battling illnesses and injuries all winter. He is still recovering from gallbladder surgery and Jeannie is improving, but still getting treatment for a prolonged illness.

“Hopefully, we can just keep timing it so that we’re not both laid up at the same time,” Hale said with a chuckle.

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