EM Class A finals to be aired Late agreement will allow Bangor fans to watch Ram game

Bangor High School basketball fans won’t have to travel to see their Rams tonight.

Despite the fact the games are on the same time as Eastern Maine Class C semifinal games in Bangor, Friday’s Eastern Maine Class A games will be aired live on local television.

Thanks to a late agreement between Maine Public Broadcasting Network, the exclusive TV network of the Maine basketball tournaments, and Time Warner Cable, Friday’s 7 p.m. East regional title game between the Bangor boys and Messalonskee Eagles of Oakland is on Time Warner’s cable access channel.

“Actually, we knew back along and I had promises from them [Time Warner] back in early fall about covering the Class A games,” said Gil Maxwell, MPBN’s chief technology officer. “It’s just that we’ve both been busy and talking back and forth. We finally got it kind of firmed up last week.”

Maxwell explained the somewhat complex schedule Maine’s public TV network is using to air 44 games live in six days over two weeks.

“What we’re basically doing is all the games at the Bangor Auditorium are on our prime channels [Orono’s WMEB-TV, cable channel 13 and broadcast channel 12] in the Bangor, Calais and Presque Isle areas,” Maxwell said. “And the games from Augusta are on cable access 12 in Bangor.”

In Calais, the games from Bangor are on WMED (broadcast channel 13) and in Presque Isle, they’re on WMEM (ch. 10).

For Eastern Maine hoop fans, that means the Class A regional finals from the Augusta Civic Center – Cony vs. Messalonskee at 4 p.m. and Bangor vs. Messalonskee at 7 p.m. – are on Time Warner cable access channel 12, while the East Class C semifinals from Bangor at 2:05, 3:35, 7:05 and 8:35 p.m. will air on WMEB (Ch. 13 or cable channel 12).

Time Warner is going one step further with its assistance to MPBN by providing equipment and personnel for MPBN to air the Class B state championship games from Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center on Friday, March 2.

“Time Warner actually helps us come out of Portland in producing Class B states because it would be nearly impossible to do those two games Friday night and then get our equipment back to Augusta and Bangor for six games the next day,” Maxwell said. “We don’t have enough equipment or manpower.”

Time Warner communications and public affairs manager Peter DeWitt said his company is providing cameras and other video production equipment including a satellite truck.

“I think we’ll have over a half dozen personnel working on the games,” DeWitt said. “It’ll be a little chaotic, but well worthwhile.”

“It’s an example of the ongoing relationship we have with them to help air the games, and that goes back to one of our primary missions, which is airing unique local origination programming like these games,” said DeWitt. “If we can help out, we’re certainly willing to lend a helping had because it’s the right thing to do.”

The Class B state games will air on all five MPBN stations in Maine: WMEB, WMED, WMEM, Augusta’s WCBB (channel 10) and Biddeford’s WMEA (Ch. 26).

The Saturday (March 3) Class A state games at 3 and 7 p.m. will air on Time Warner’s Bangor cable access channel, WCBB, and WMEA.

Maxwell has been a busy man this week. The organized chaos that is his workday was apparent as he recalled a technical problem that occurred on the first day of broadcasts Wednesday.

“This afternoon, we were supposed to go with Augusta [Civic Center feed] and they started early, so we didn’t have the chance to set it up and had to make a hard cut instead,” he explained. “We had no warning. My operators called me from August and said ‘Go’.”

As a result, Maxwell said, a Bangor viewer watching the John Bapst-Mount Desert Island Class B girls semifinal game from Bangor on channel 12 was switched suddenly to the feed from Augusta. Bangor viewers watching the Bapst-MDI game on channel 13, however, were not interrupted.

“The MPA [Maine Principals’ Association] down in Augusta decided to start the games a few minutes early since everyone was ready to go, but they weren’t thinking about the broadcasting coordination… Unfortunately,” said Maxwell.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-900-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net