There’s no question the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race is the most popular and most attention-grabbing race of its kind in the state. That distinction certainly won’t be diminished at all this year.

For the eighth consecutive season, the annual race will receive live coverage by both radio and television. The 38th running of the signature spring event will enjoy even more coverage as both Bangor TV station WABI (Channel 5) and Bangor radio station WZON (620 AM) will also provide live race coverage on their respective Web sites in addition to their over-the-air coverage.

“This year, we’re adding a new twist. We’ll be broadcasting the race live on our watchmainesports.com Web site,” said Mike Young, WABI’s general manager.

This is the first time a TV station will air race coverage on the Internet. WABI has been airing many of its live sports broadcasts on its Web site since last October.

“It’s a unique event that is everything Maine and it’s kind of a natural Webcast event,” Young said.

WABI, the first TV station in the country to air its own sportscasts on the Internet, is enjoying solid success with its TV Webcasts.

“It was a financial risk that’s proven to be a prudent investment,” said Young. “We’re ahead of our projections at this point.

Young said WABI will judge the Webcasts’ success with a two-year evaluation period.

WABI’s coverage airs from 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. and involves four or five cameras and at least four reporters positioned at various points along the race’s 161/2-mile course.

WZON will be on the air from 8:30 a.m. until noon and will employ 12 people during its broadcast.

“This is actually the ninth year we’ve done the full coverage like this,” said WZON announcer Clem LaBree, who has taken part in all but one of the Kenduskeag broadcasts.

“The Sports Zone” has won several broadcasting awards for its Kenduskeag Race coverage from organizations like the Maine Association of Broadcasters (MAB) and Associated Press. “Some of the comments we’ve heard [from judges] are things in the way of it showing great work and ingenuity to make an event like this as interesting as it is for three hours.”

This is the eighth straight year WABI has provided live race coverage.

Webcasts are available by logging onto watchmainesports.com (for WABI) or zoneradio.com (WZON). It costs $14.95 to watch WABI’s Webcast while WZON’s is free.

ESPN’s “E” stands for exclusive

Maybe the hot dogs weren’t ready yet.

Hermon’s John Smist, a sports reporter for Bangor TV station WLBZ (Ch. 2), received a rather rude reception from the NCAA last week when he tried to film some fan footage at the Frozen Four.

Smist and cameraman Dan Frye, also of Hermon, were trying to interview some Maine fans milling about the concourse and concession stands, located under the stands and away from the view of the ice arena at FleetCenter in Boston, but they received a cold shoulder from an NCAA official.

“He went extremely overboard,” Smist said. “He said he should pull our [media] credentials because we couldn’t film in the arena. I told him we weren’t filming the game, but he said it didn’t matter.”

The NCAA official confiscated the videotape from Frye’s camera, but did not revoke the crew’s credentials.

“It was very silly, but he said ESPN had exclusive rights to everything inside the building,” Smist recalled. “We apologized and it was the least of our problems that day, so we didn’t worry much about it.”

So Smist and Frye went over to Boston Beerworks instead and interviewed some Maine hockey fans who were unable to get tickets and were watching the semifinal game on one of the bar’s TV sets.

They never got the tape back.

“That’s alright. I didn’t want to jeopardize the rest of the day and it was only a $5 tape anyway,” Smist said.

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