Pity the unfortunate employee saddled with the daunting task of counting up all of Bangor all-sports radio station WZON’s locally produced broadcasts since the station went on the air in the fall of 1993.

He or she must have really ticked someone off.

Actually, it was a group effort, but still, how long does it take to count something like that up?

“Well, it wasn’t easy,” said Dale Duff, program director of WZON (620 AM). “The first thing we had to figure out was what to count. Do we count all our broadcasts, like Red Sox and NFL games and our local stuff, or just go with the locally produced stuff?”

Early this year, Duff initially decided to shoot the works and count it all up. Easy for him to decide, since he could have someone else do it.

“Well, we did and it ended up over 8,000, so we decided to strip away anything that wasn’t locally produced,” Duff explained. “We counted the ones where we took the gear and went out somewhere to do a game.”

That meant college and high school games, American Legion baseball, Senior League and Little League baseball, the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe race, and other miscellaneous events. It also brought the number down to a manageable 2,950 or so broadcasts, which meant the 3,000 mark would likely be eclipsed this year.

As fate would have it, that historic broadcast happens to involve an ever-present staple of The Sports Zone’s broadcast schedule the last 13 years: University of Maine sports.

Saturday’s 1 p.m. broadcast of the UMaine men’s basketball game against Boston University is also fitting as a benchmark since it will originate from UMaine’s Memorial Gymnasium.

“It seemed really appropriate because we first started doing games from The Pit, where they still played all their home games those first few years for us,” Duff said.

Duff got the idea to count broadcasts during the station’s observance of its 10-year anniversary in 2003. WZON went to an all-sports format on Jan. 1, 1994, and started broadcasting 24 hours a day after getting the Red Sox radio contract that spring.

Of course, Duff admits the calculation process has been an inexact science.

“I’m not going to say it’s exactly 3,000, but it’s right around it and close enough,” he said. “Besides, 3,000 is a big number synonymous with sports, like with 3,000 hits and 3,000 strikeouts.”

Duff credits the combined hard work and productive efforts of broadcasters, technicians, sales reps, advertising and business office employees, and support staff members for the station’s long run. Another key factor is purpose.

“We made a commitment to be something,” said Duff. “All it takes is a look at cable and satellite TV stations and you know you have to make a commitment to be something in this day and age, and we’ve worked hard at doing sports.”

Duff said the two most difficult periods for WZON were the Major League Baseball strike that shortened the season and canceled the World Series in 1994 and the UMaine hockey player eligibility scandal that landed the Black Bears on probation in 1996.

“Those hurt us the most. When they first came back from the baseball strike, it was a hard sell because fans were mad, sponsors were mad…. Even with the Red Sox,” Duff recalled. “And it took awhile for them to come back. Now there’s a waiting list for Red Sox sponsors.

“We had the same thing with the UMaine hockey scandal, but after a while, they all came back.”

So will a lot of memories when Ron Lisnet and Dean Smith go on the air Saturday afternoon for Number 3,000.

2,999 and counting

When WZON of Bangor broadcasts Saturday’s UMaine men’s basketball game, it will be its 3,000th live, local sportscast since the fall of 1993. The breakdown:

1,499

University of Maine sports events

1,200

Maine high school contests

170

Amateur baseball games (American Legion, Senior League, and Little League)

120

Husson College competitions

10

Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Races

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