Radio market realities

I have to wonder if the controversy surrounding the recent University of Maine/WVOM sports broadcasting agreement has illuminated or obscured the relevant facts in this matter. While some WZON listeners and UMaine alumni are dismayed that the Sports Zone lost this contract, it seems that many

of the stated objections ignore marketplace realities.

The university selected Learfield Sports through competitive bid – just as 35 or so other Division I schools have done – to broker the UMaine/WVOM deal. With a first year guarantee of $450,000 in revenue from Learfield, this allows UMaine to maximize resources in a partially taxpayer funded institution.

Although Learfield and WVOM parent company Clear Channel are not based in Maine, they are American companies, nonetheless. And why should out-of-state companies which provide a uniquely competitive and/or a cost-effective local product or service be necessarily precluded from doing business with UMaine?

Those insisting UMaine only contract with a “local” radio station are, in effect, stipulating an economic constraint nobody would want placed back on them – that they only purchase goods and services produced exclusively in Maine. Unfortunately, this is a practical impossibility.

Admittedly, one can argue that, all other things being equal, a local radio station like WZON with an award-winning track record of local sports coverage, owned by a local guy like Stephen King, with an equally impressive track record of Bangor area charitable contributions, would certainly be a perfect fit to cover UMaine sports. But all things never are equal. And if only the Sports Zone was ever qualified to contract to broadcast UMaine hockey and football on radio, wouldn’t WZON have a monopoly of sorts?

When it comes to WVOM, comparative claims that the station format is insufficiently local are quickly shown to be demonstrably false when one tunes in to programs like “Maine in the Morning.”

David D. Wilson

Levant