NESN, local radio to have UM hockey

Those of you University of Maine hockey fans unable to accompany the Black Bears to Boston this weekend can still watch the action.

New England Sports Network is broadcasting both Hockey East Tournament semifinals tonight live with the Bears scheduled to take the ice at 8 p.m.

Black Bear sports radio flagship WZON (620 AM) in Bangor will also air the game live from the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston on radio as well as on the Internet at www.zoneradio.com. Three other stations in Maine – Portland’s WLOB (1310 AM and 96.3 FM) and Presque Isle’s WEGP (1390 AM) will simulcast the broadcast, using WZON’s feed.

Maine will take on Boston College in the late game after Boston University plays New Hampshire.

If Maine defeats Boston College, both NESN and WZON will air Saturday’s 7 p.m. championship game live as well.

Sportscaster of the year

Dale Duff, program director and sportscaster at Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM), has been named sportscaster of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association for the fifth time in his 29-year journalism career.

Duff also won, via nominations and a vote of his peers in Maine’s sports media community, in 1987, 1989 and 1990 while he was the sports director at Bangor television station WLBZ (Channel 2), and 1993.

“It makes you realize how long you’ve been doing this,” said the 48-year-old Duff, who used to be a part-time public address announcer for the Maine Lumberjacks CBA team. “This is a tough business and sports in general makes it tougher due to the long and odd hours you work, but this shows that putting the time in pays off.”

This is the eighth time a WZON broadcaster has won the annual award.

From Beantown to Watertown

NESN has moved its headquarters from Fenway Park into a new, state-of-the-art facility in Watertown, Mass. The move more than triples its space with 40,139 square feet of office and production space featuring two complete high definition studios and control rooms.

NESN will retain its studios at Fenway and TD Banknorth Garden, allowing it to produce four programs at the same time and do all programming (including its daily SportsDesk show) in HD. The studio space will go from 9,000 to 4,500 feet and HD programming will go from 176 to 1,200 programs per year. The new production control rooms will feature a multi-viewing processor wall consisting of large LCD (liquid crystal displays) which can be divided from one to two to four screens. The new facility is also server- rather than tape-based.

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