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The demand was there and then some, but alas, there was no supply.
The Women’s National Invitational Tournament first- round basketball game between the University of Maine and West Virginia will not be televised, but not due to any lack of effort or interest by local stations.
Bangor CBS affiliate WABI (Channel 5) has already aired a record 17 live UMaine sports broadcasts this year and was more than willing to make that 18, but there is no station in Morgantown, W.Va., broadcasting Friday’s 7 p.m. game.
“I did contact the University of Maine to see if there was any local entity making a broadcast available, but there is no TV option available down there,” said WABI station manager Mike Young.
There is, however, a radio option as UMaine flagship station WZON (620 AM), Bangor’s all-sports station, is airing the game live after the conclusion of Friday’s 5 p.m. Hockey East semifinal playoff game between UMaine and Boston College.
“The Maine-West Virginia game has a 7:15 tipoff time, so we’ll have hockey on radio and the Internet [zoneradio.com] from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and the women will be on both starting around 7:30 p.m.,” said WZON program director Dale Duff. “In essence, we’ll JIP [join in progress] the basketball game after hockey.”
It’s a snug fit, but it could be worse for Duff.
“They were both within an hour or so of each other last year, but I don’t know if we ever did get to the women’s game because the hockey went triple overtime,” Duff said with a laugh.
WZON’s hockey broadcast will also be available on Black Bear radio network members WEGP (1390 AM) in Presque Isle and WLOB (1310 AM) in Portland.
Lombardi leaving
Ted Lombardi, the sports director at Bangor TV station WVII (Ch. 7) for the last 21 months, is leaving his job to take a new one with a fledgling Internet Web site – backpageboston.com – in Boston.
The Malden, Mass., native found the allure of returning to his roots too hard to resist between the opportunity for a joint venture with college pal Ken DeBlois, the comfort of being back in his home area, and the fact his fianc?e – Valerie Geary – is now living and working in Boston.
“He had the idea for a site and I kind of came up with the format. I’m going to be chief writer and doing articles dealing with the sports issues of the day,” said the 26-year-old Lombardi. “It’ll be kind of different in that we’ll have message boards attached to the articles.
“There will also be daily polls and we’ll have some offbeat stuff as well with gambling tips or fantasy sports-related features and things like that.”
The Web site made its debut last week, but is still going through its “shakedown” cruise.
“It will look completely different next week,” said Lombardi, who earned a psychology degree from Holy Cross before getting his master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University this year.
Lombardi also hopes to start teaching journalism at an area high school.
“It’s kind of taking a risk, but there’s a lot of pull for me to go back home,” said Lombardi, who is getting married in November. “There were so many things pulling me away and I felt I needed a new challenge.”
Sports and general assignment news reporter Tim Baier will now be exclusively a sports reporter as he succeeds Lombardi. Full-time videographer and part-time sports reporter Elgin Traylor will help out more in sports.
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600, or at aneff@bangordailynews.com
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