While the position on the radio dial and the station call letters are changing, the voices for future University of Maine sports broadcasts may not.

Two weeks after announcing a new five-year contract agreement with the University of Maine for exclusive radio broadcast rights to Black Bear sporting events, Clear Channel and Learfield Communications officials are putting the new Black Bear Radio Network – and its announcers – together.

“I think our first step is to reach out and see who’s interested among current UMaine broadcasters,” said Mike McCollum, general manager for Black Bear Sports Properties. “We will contact each and every one of them and make an effort to keep them on with their current teams.”

That means that hockey voice Dan Hannigan and football broadcast duo Rich Kimball and Bob Lucy could remain as their respective Maine sports voices.

“I would be interested in continuing my association with Maine football, the coaching staff and players, and continuing to work with Bob,” said Kimball, who recently completed his 10th season in the broadcast booth with Lucy. “I haven’t heard from the people at Clear Channel yet, so at this point it would be speculation. I would be interested, but I also have a great deal of loyalty and respect for Dale [Duff] and all the people at WZON.

“I’m curious to know under this new deal what the expectations are for the announcers on these broadcasts, especially if, in effect, they’re employed by the university. I’m also curious to hear what their plans are in terms of production value of the broadcasts.”

Specifically, Kimball wants to know if announcers are expected to be Black Bear backers or remain objective, even if that means offering on-air criticism; whether Clear Channel would send two broadcasters on the road to do games, no matter where they are; whether pregame and postgame shows would be done; and where those shows would originate from (studio or on the road).

McCollum already has answers to some of those questions, saying they will do both pregame and postgame shows and that he would like to have the capability to do those both from the studio and on the road.

Black Bear Sports Properties is a subsidiary of Missouri-based Learfield Sports and serves as the UMaine athletic department’s multimedia rights consulting arm. Learfield and UMaine signed a six-year deal for BBSP to handle all the bidding and decision-making for awarding exclusive TV and radio rights a year ago.

In effect, BBSP is more than a broker or middleman. It’s responsible for providing the broadcast signal and announcers for UMaine games to the flagship station, which is WVOM (103.9 FM), Clear Channel’s 50,000-watt station in Bangor (licensed to Howland).

The aim is to have at least one Black Bear affiliate station in each of Maine’s major geographic areas. So far, WVOM is joined by Lincoln’s WGUY (102.7 FM), Bangor’s WABI (910 AM), and at least one station in the Augusta-Midcoast area (Boothbay Harbor’s WCME, 96.7 FM).

WVOM will air all football and men’s hockey games; a weekly Tim Whitehead coaching show; 3-minute Black Bear Daily Reports, which will run throughout each day during the academic year; and all UMaine NCAA playoff games in hockey, basketball, baseball and softball. WGUY will air all men’s and women’s basketball games plus a minimum of 25 baseball games and five softball games, plus any baseball or softball postseason games. WABI will be utilized for overflow and secondary coverage.

There are still loose ends to tie up in terms of the schedule, but it’s likely fellow Clear Channel stations WRKD (1450 AM) in Rockland, WFAU (1280 AM) in Gardiner and WIGY (97.5 FM) in Madison will also be at least part-time affiliates.

“We’re still negotiating, but we’re confident that we’ll be able to reach an agreement and our stations in Augusta and Rockland will be part of the network,” said Kelly Slater, Clear Channel market manager for Augusta-Rockland. “Our only issue is that we’re very dedicated to local high school football and basketball games and we don’t want to interfere with that schedule.”

McCollum is also working to add stations in Aroostook County, Calais, Portland and western Maine.

“We’re trying to line up an affiliate in Portland and there’s strong interest,” said McCollum. “Painting the state blue is the mission, so we want to have affiliates in Portland, Calais, Augusta, Presque Isle and Rumford or Mexico.”

McCollum was able to provide a definitive answer for one question that has been constantly asked since the new contract was announced. All UMaine sportscasts will be aired on the Internet via Web streaming.

“We will be streaming at goblackbears.com for free, and that should easily be in place by the first game this fall,” he said.

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