While many of his friends dreamed of lacing up the skates in the NHL, Jeff Mannix had an eye on the broadcast booth.

“I’ve wanted to be a hockey broadcaster for about as long as I can remember,” said the 24-year-old Presque Isle native. “I’ve always known what I wanted to do.”

After graduating from the University of Maine with a broadcast journalism degree, Mannix was certain his experience at Maine and as a reporter-broadcaster-board operator for Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620AM) would land him a pro job somewhere, but the opportunities weren’t as plentiful as he hoped.

Less than 11/2 years later, however, he is in his second season as the Lewiston Maineiacs television color analyst and first season as the team’s radio play-by-play man for Lewiston’s WCNM (1240 AM).

“It started kind of by accident last year. They gave the radio job to a guy who did color on TV the year before and TV needed someone,” Mannix said.

Justin Pelletier, the Lewiston Sun Journal’s Maineiacs beat writer, knew Mannix and recommended him for the job. After an interview and a tryout, he was paired with play-by-play man Rob Kennedy.

“I replaced Frank Stetson, who I also replaced on the radio this year. They called me two months after he left and a week before preseason last year,” he explained.

This year, the former WMEB station manager had a bit more advance notice.

“I’m still doing TV color and doing radio play-by-play,” he said. “Home games are on TV and away games are on radio, but there are some conflicts.”

The Maineiacs, a member of the Quebec Major-Junior League, an amateur division whose playing level is roughly on a par with American collegiate hockey, play 36 home games and 34 away. When one of about a dozen conflicts (radio and TV coverage) occur, he does radio and they bring in a replacement for him on TV.

Despite doing games on two mediums – in two different roles – Mannix doesn’t find the roles conflicting or confusing.

“To me, it’s not that big a deal because I watch the games the same way,” he said. “They really don’t conflict. They actually complement each other.

“I think radio actually helps me out in my TV duties because you have to be much more detail-oriented in radio to create a picture for listeners.”

Game telecasts are aired locally by Adelphia Cable on Bangor public access channel 12 on a taped basis the next day. Live telecasts are Webcast by Eastlink Televison at www.maineiacstv.com.

After serving as radio announcer for the Maine men’s and women’s hockey teams his first two years as a UMaine student, Mannix spent the next three seasons exclusively as play-by-play man for the men’s team on campus station WMEB (91.9 FM).

He has been working at WZON for the last three years on a part-time basis and hosts the “Sunday Buffet” talk show with Pat Speckhart. The Orono resident is eyeing an NHL broadcasting job at some point.

“I want to get there as fast as I can, but it’s all about ability and opportunity. I just have to be ready,” he said.

Tripleheader telecast touchdown

Officials at Bangor television station WABI (Channel 5) are all smiles two weeks after broadcasting all three state championship high school football games Nov. 19.

“We had a very, very positive reaction from viewers with a lot of thank-you calls and e-mails,” said WABI program director Steve Hiltz. “Even people from areas where their local teams weren’t in it were very appreciative.”

Although all three live broadcasts were aired during November sweeps, a period of time when Neilsen TV ratings are measured and available for all markets, Hiltz said they would not be available until next week.

There were, however, other ways to measure the popularity of the broadcasts.

“We had about 40 people sign up for the live Webcasting [watchmainesports.com] that day,” Hiltz said. “It may seem like a somewhat low number, but we’re actually pretty happy with that.”

Considering how relatively new TV Webcasting is nationwide, let alone Maine, it’s a good number for WABI. It’s also an all-time high for one-day signups in the two years WABI has been Webcasting games.

“We’re pretty happy with 20 or more for anything we do on that basis,” said Hiltz. “If we can hit 30 or more for a game, that may not be terrific, but it is encouraging for something still in its infancy.”

Another encouraging sign is WABI’s ad sales for all three games.

“The Brewer game was totally sold out and the ‘A’ game was virtually sold out, but we surprisingly didn’t sell out the night game,” Hiltz said. “We sold about 80 percent of our commercial spots.”

Hiltz said WABI will likely be interested in broadcasting all three games next year as well, but it depends largely on the calendar (schedule).

“I think it’s a combination of things. We’d like to do it again, but we haven’t set down and talked about it yet,” Hiltz said. “A lot depends on the schedule, but the [ratings] numbers will be a telling factor as well.”

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