No lack of negative and ugly sports stories to write about, so thank goodness for George.

Congratulations, broadcast partner.

George Hale recently received the New England Football Writers’ Carens Award for his career contributions to New England college football.

George has been at the mike for Maine football since 1956, not to mention a ton of high school games. His voice and personality have been a vital part of not just University of Maine sports, but Eastern Maine sports at all levels for all these wonderful years.

He is the man who taught me how to get out of bed at 4:30 in the morning, drive from Old Town to the Bangor studios, clear the wire services’ copy of overnight stories and be on the air at 5:30 sounding like you’d been up for hours.

He is the only announcer I ever met who could take phone calls, read the news, introduce Mel Torme singing a Christmas carol, announce school closings and prepare a sports report all at the same time.

That did, however, lead to a problem. Many a day I had to follow him on the air and you talk about a mess.

The studio looked like a Nor’easter ripped through and dropped every donut bag and scrap of paper in the state on the console. There was no sense trying to plead with George to clean up.

He was long gone.

George had the fastest studio exit in the history of broadcasting. If his show ended at 10 a.m., he would be gone by 9:56. That meant you had better be there a little early because George had cued up Al Martino and left.

He would be wandering down the hallway off to his next piece of business, and if you didn’t get there in time, there was going to be another Al Martino song on its way.

When we covered high school basketball together, I never got worried when tipoff was two minutes away and there was no George.

He was chatting it up with someone in the vicinity and about 10 seconds before the tip, over the back of the chair he came and away we went.

Now I see he’s going to cheat. He’s going to do two morning shows, one on WABI and one on WVOM.

He says it’s the magic of computers.

Does that mean that at least one of the studios will not be covered in paper every morning? Does that mean Dean Martin will be heard on two stations at the same time with the same intro by George?

How will George talk on the phone while he’s on the air if he’s coming your way via the computer?

I don’t care, so long as he’s on.

Just to rub it in, George, I was a junior at Old Town High when I started at WABI and you wondered who the heck hired a kid who had never been in a studio before.

You started in the business before I did, and at the rate you’re going, you may out last me.

Good for you. We all needed a nice story for the holidays.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays all.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net