University of Maine President Robert Kennedy acknowledged Thursday that the university owes Bangor authors and UMaine benefactors Stephen and Tabitha King an apology.

For the first time, Kennedy publicly addressed the situation involving its athletic media rights agent, Black Bear Sports Properties, which March 15 announced it had awarded radio broadcast rights for UMaine athletics to Bangor station WVOM (103.9 FM) and Clear Channel for the next five years.

That agreement severed the university’s ties with WZON, 620 AM, of Bangor, the station owned by the Kings, which had been UMaine’s sports flagship station since 1997.

“The Kings deserve better treatment than we afforded them,” Kennedy said. “I recognize – as all of us at UMaine do – that they are among the most important alumni and supporters UMaine has ever had.”

Kennedy extended the olive branch in a statement responding to comments Stephen King had made in an e-mail to WABI-TV Channel 5 in Bangor.

“It would be very Grinch-y to say, ‘You [UMaine] took away our coverage of UM sports, so we’re taking our financial ball and going home,'” King said in an e-mail to WABI reporter Amy Ericson. “Tabby and I feel we were treated shabbily by the Athletic Department, and have serious questions about whether or not the negotiations were done in good faith. We feel the community was treated even more shabbily.”

There has been considerable public outcry in the wake of the announcement of the new radio broadcast rights agreement.

“We have learned important lessons, and we will do better in the future,” Kennedy said. “We will also make every attempt to demonstrate to Stephen and Tabitha that UMaine continues to be worthy of their support.”

The radio contract was negotiated not by UMaine, but by Black Bear Sports Properties, a subsidiary of Learfield Communications, a company based in Missouri that specializes in media and advertising.

It was 11 months ago that UMaine signed over to Black Bear Sports Properties the exclusive rights to negotiate the bidding and make decisions in awarding radio and TV rights for UMaine athletics. In return, UMaine received $450,000, but relinquished the right to determine which stations would carry Black Bear games.

BBSP, not UMaine, negotiated the contract with its new flagship station, WVOM, and Clear Channel.

The Kings, who have financially supported athletics and academics at UMaine for many years, apparently thought they deserved to retain the rights, or have better negotiations, based on their longtime affiliation with the university.

Even so, Stephen King indicated the incident wouldn’t prevent him and his wife from continuing their financial support of university causes.

“Our decision on giving will still be made on a case-by-case basis,” King said. “We are, however, human – and that means we are hurt and angry over this decision.”

According to a report Thursday night on WABI, King also was upset after being told by an employee at the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation that UMaine allegedly had asked the organization to relinquish its luxury box at Alfond Arena on the Orono campus.

“We just want to make clear there was a simple miscommunication and the athletic department did not, in any way, ask for the skybox back,” said UMaine athletics spokesman Brent Williamson, who explained that the Kings are paying for the box through the 2008-09 winter sports season.

The lease on a 12-seat luxury box at Alfond Arena is $132,500 for six years, $26,500 a year.

Williamson said Joe Roberts, UMaine’s associate athletic director for external operations, called the King Foundation office Monday to offer tickets to UMaine’s appearance in the NCAA men’s ice hockey “Frozen Four.”

Luxury box patrons and other high-level donors and season ticket holders get first refusal to purchase the tickets, Williamson said.

During the conversation, Roberts apparently alluded to whether the Kings were planning to keep the luxury box in the future.

“Somehow it was taken out of context and Stephen King thought we were asking him to give the box back,” Williamson said.

King could not be reached for comment Thursday night.