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A local radio station will auction off everything from a triple-chocolate cake to VIP accommodations for a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, homemade blankets and a replica World Series ring to raise money for cancer research next week.
Bangor all-sports station WZON (620 AM) is airing its own Jimmy Fund Radiothon a 12th straight year, in conjunction with the main one run by Red Sox radio flagship station WEEI (850 AM) Friday, Aug. 18.
It will be all-Sox, all day long for participating radiothon stations as the Red Sox will also be hosting the New York Yankees in a day-night doubleheader that same Friday.
“It’s already a very busy day with games at 1 and 8 p.m.,” said WZON announcer Clem LaBree, who is producing the radiothon show.
The radiothon will air on WZON from 7 a.m. to the start of the Red Sox pregame show at 12:25. LaBree said WZON and WEEI are working on solving logistical problems in order to allow WZON to simulcast WEEI’s much longer radiothon between Red Sox broadcasts.
“We both want to do it, but they’re not sure if they can get us the signal,” LaBree said. We’re hoping to pick up their feed and continue on with it. Theirs starts at 6 a.m. and goes until 1 a.m. the next day.”
WZON will offer three items for bid hourly in addition to two grand prize items, which will be open for bids from 7 a.m. to noon. Those two featured items are a pair of State Street Pavilion tickets to a Sept. 10 game against Kansas City at Fenway and a replica 2004 World Series ring offered exclusively by the Red Sox.
The ticket package includes a parking spot at Fenway – something worth $40 to $100 in itself – and tickets to the new section opened by the Sox this season which features leather seats, access to the in-game food and beverage service which caters exclusively to that section as well as the Home Plate Club lounge and theme bars, and concierge service.
The ring is approximately two inches in height and 13/4 inches in diameter on the top face. It features the same engravings on rings presented to players, but not the same jewels. It also has “No. 1 fan” engraved on it.
New Hampshire resident Jim Samway, who has a summer home in Northport and is a member of the BoSox Club, provided the ring as well as other items.
Some of the other items include baseballs autographed by players like Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Johnny Damon (which was signed at the time Damon made his first visit to Fenway as a New York Yankee), and former Sox great Johnny Pesky; Portland Sea Dogs tickets; a game-used Trot Nixon bat which Nixon wrote his player number on; a game ball autographed by the Tampa Devil Rays team members; a University of Maine sports ticket package for Oct. 13-14 including tickets to one football game and two hockey games; a homemade Red Sox blanket and pillow case set made and donated by Janet Coffin; stints as host of either WZON’s morning or afternoon shows; and a triple-chocolate cake baked by Charleston’s Dick McQuesten, better known to listeners as a regular WZON caller named “Splash.”
The first eight people to come to the studio and make Jimmy Fund donations will receive free tickets for white-water rafting trips on the Kennebec.
“One thing we’re going to do this year, which we’ve never done before, is display the items at the studio from 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday so people can check them out firsthand,” LaBree said.
The Sports Zone has raised $40,933 over the last 11 years.
“Last year, we raised $6,500 and it’s gone up, pretty much, every year, although our high is $6,900 in 2004,” said LaBree.
As impressive as those numbers are, they are dwarfed mightily by WEEI, which raised $1.1 million in 2003, $1.5 million in 2004, and even more in 2005. Proceeds have exploded since New England Sports Network started simulcasting the radio-telethon.
“It was about $25 million last year. This is the third year we have simulcasted with WEEI,” said NESN spokesman Gary Roy. “We add additional features, updates and have our own hosts.”
“We start off at 6 a.m. with WEEI host Dale Arnold and continue to midnight. We’ll go until noon, when we start pregame and then resume around 4 until 6:30 p.m. Then after the game, we’ll pick it up again right up through midnight.”
Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net
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