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The 13th season of operation for the Portland Sea Dogs will bring with it some changes in the broadcast booth.
The Boston Red Sox Double-A affiliate will have a slightly new sound during its radio broadcasts. Veteran broadcaster Mike Antonellis will take over as primary play-by-play man in his second season with the Sea Dogs while Todd Jamison, the voice of the Sea Dogs for the last four seasons, will do select home and road games. Jamison, who is also Portland’s director of broadcast and video services, will primarily coordinate the operation of the Sea Dogs’ video board.
“The main reason was, after doing it the last four years, is I was kind of looking for a different kind of challenge,” explained Jamison, who will still call 40 to 60 games. “And with my wife Jennifer’s situation, where she became seriously ill over the summer, it really took its toll on me and I asked if I could decrease the demand on my time and the people at the Sea Dogs were really great coming up with something.”
Jamison’s job makeover coincided with the resignation of the team’s former video operations man.
“Yeah, so now I’m overseeing the broadcast operations as well as the video operations, hiring game-day staff, putting together video pieces and in-house pregame shows, as well as expanded sales and marketing duties,” said Jamison.
Jennifer Jamison’s health is much improved now and she’s back at work as a cancer nurse, but her health problems prompted them both to re-evaluate their priorities.
Another change is the addition of Chris Fama to the Sea Dogs broadcast team as the pregame and postgame host and part-time play-by-play man on select (20-30) broadcasts. Fama, who beat out 70 other applicants, has been the voice of Providence College women’s basketball and Assumption College athletics the last four years and began his minor league baseball broadcasting career with the Pittsfield Mets of the New York-Penn League.
A Boston (Hyde Park) native, Fama has broadcast Providence College hockey, Division I-AA football and Harvard University men’s basketball games. He got his radio start at the same station (WMRC in Milford, Mass.) Antonellis did and both attended Framingham State University at the same time.
“The funny thing is our paths overlapped very briefly, but it was enough for us to get to know each other,” said Fama. “I’m looking forward to the jump from short-season A ball to Double-A. I’m happy with the switch too because it’s more in line with what I want to do in my career, which is be a play-by-play guy.”
This will be Antonellis’ 10th season as a minor league play-by-play man. The native of Ashland, Mass., worked for Boston radio station WAMG (ESPN Radio, 890 AM) in the offseason and is now in his third season doing Eastern League broadcasting. He started with the Erie Seawolves in 2004 and started his minor league broadcasting with the Prince William Cannons in 1997. Antonellis has also done play-by-play for college football and basketball, and the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch.
Jamison credits Antonellis for filling in capably enough to make his extended absence – Jamison says he probably called between 50 and 60 of the team’s 142 regular-season games last year – possible.
“It was really fortunate for us to have a guy with his experience come in when he did because I basically missed three months,” he said.
Antonellis is excited to be the lead broadcaster this season.
“For me, to be honest, this is everything I thought it could be and more. I love working for the Sea Dogs,” he said. “I like the whole operation and feel very comfortable here now. As you get older, I think you love it more than you do your first year, if that’s possible. I can’t picture doing anything else.”
Maine TV bets on poker
Maine’s first televised poker tournament will air for the first time Saturday on Portland TV station WPXT (Ch. 51). Saturday’s 8 p.m. show will be the first of eight, weekly, hour-long shows which will also be rebroadcast on WPME (Ch. 35) Tuesdays at 10 p.m. The championship match will be aired May 13.
The Skillful Poker Showdown will pit 36 contestants randomly selected from 500 entrants who will compete for a $5,000 first prize. The games will take place at the WPXT studios in Westbrook and be hosted by on-air personalities from Portland radio station WJBQ (97.9 FM) and Biddeford’s WCYY (94.3 FM).
Most valuable Mannix
Presque Isle native Jeff Mannix picked up an unexpected honor at the recent Lewiston MAINEiacs awards banquet. The University of Maine graduate, who is finishing up his first season as the radio voice and second as the television color analyst of the MAINEiacs, was presented the Bernard Just Trophy as the most valuable member of the MAINEiacs organization.
Mannix has also been working part time for Bangor sports radio station WZON (620 AM) for the last 3 1/2 years. He does MAINEiacs games for Lewiston radio station WCNM (1240 AM) and TV broadcasts on Adelphia cable access channels as well as online via Eastlink Television at www.maineiacstv.com.
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.
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