If it’s mid-February in Maine, it must be tournament time – the equivalent of the Filene’s wedding gown basement sale or an Irish pub on St. Patrick’s Day – at radio and television stations all over Eastern Maine.

Actually, a more apt comparison would be comparing the Eastern Maine Tournament to the North Pole for the few days leading up to Christmas since tournament time lasts more than a few hours or just a day or two.

Maine Public Broadcasting Network producer Ed Fowler is as familiar with this annual rite of organized chaos as anyone. This will be his 26th tournament, and although repetition does bring with it familiarity, it doesn’t always mean things get easier.

“Oh, it can still be a headache,” Fowler said with a chuckle. “There are always things that come up to make things interesting.”

MPBN begins its coverage Wednesday afternoon, when the tournament shifts into the semifinal rounds with Class B action.

A few radio stations, such as Clear Channel Worldwide-owned WABI (910 AM) of Bangor, WNSX (97.7 FM) of Winter Harbor, and WGUY (102.1 FM) of Lincoln, will provide live coverage of all the games from the opening tip Friday afternoon to the final buzzer on Saturday night, Feb. 26.

“We’ll have nine people broadcasting all 42 games on all three stations,” said WABI program director and morning host George Hale.

The games will be simulcast live on all three stations.

Bangor all-sports station WZON (620 AM) will air 41 games on WZON Internet (Zoneradio.com), the radio (620 AM), or both. The only game The Sports Zone won’t be airing is an Eastern Maine Class D girls quarterfinal Saturday due to a conflict with both University of Maine hockey (at Providence, 7 p.m., radio) and UMaine men’s basketball (vs. Hartford, 7:30 p.m., on WZON Internet).

WZON will use a rotating stable of 10 announcers plus another half-dozen statisticians during the week of broadcasts.

Many other radio stations will provide live coverage of all games involving their town’s, region’s or listening area’s teams until those teams lose.

Although MPBN’s schedule remains the same, there will be a few changes in its announcers’ lineup.

Former girls play-by-play man Keith McKeen has moved to Portland to take another job with Maine Public Television. Brewer Middle School teacher/administrator and WZON announcer Rich Kimball and former University of Maine hockey radio play-by-play man Joe Carr will take turns doing play-by-play this season with Lisa Richards, who marks her 20th year providing girls color commentary.

Brewer’s Joe Gould, who will call boys games in his 24th tournament this year, will be back for a second season with former Waterville High School coach Ken Lindlof.

Also, much of the equipment has been replaced, but that won’t translate into a noticeable difference in picture or graphics quality, according to Fowler.

“We have all-new equipment. We’re not broadcasting in HD [high-definition TV] yet, but we may be down the road,” said Fowler. “Basically, it just means we have to learn a new way to do the same thing.”

Another new wrinkle with MPBN’s coverage this season is the availability of all game broadcasts on DVD. Anyone interested in purchasing copies of game telecasts can do so for $25.30 a copy, either in a DVD or VHS format.

“This is a unique and big event for us because it’s a few days when we’ve got people tuning in who may not tune in at any other time during the year,” said Lou Morin, MPBN’s marketing and communications manager.

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