For 17 weeks, New England Patriots fans who couldn’t get to a television set have listened to Gil Santos and former Patriots star Gino Cappelletti call the action as the Pats marched toward their third Super Bowl appearance in four years.

But just as that march came within sight of Jacksonville, Fla., loyal listeners not living within a 100-mile radius of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., suddenly had to listen to new voices on different radio stations.

Due to NFL broadcast rules, only listeners within that radius could continue listening to Santos’ and Cappelletti’s play-calling on Boston station WBCN (104.1 FM). Anyone outside that area would have to listen to Westwood One radio network announcers Bob Trumpy, Boomer Esiason, Marv Albert, and Joel Myers.

“It was a rights issue, pure and simple,” said Clear Channel Communications’ Maine director of operations Jeff Pierce, whose employer operates WNSX (97.7 FM) of Winter Harbor – a Patriots Rock Radio Network affiliate for the last two seasons. “Once the regular season ends, we no longer have the rights.”

But Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) and other Westwood One subscribers do.

“Hey, I understand what Westwood One is doing, protecting their interests and all, because they paid for exclusive rights to the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl,” said WZON program director Dale Duff. “But it is unfortunate for the listeners who have been listening to Gil and Gino all season.

“It was the same thing with the Red Sox and Joe [Castiglione] and Jerry [Trupiano] once Boston reached the World Series.”

The NFL’s broadcast exclusivity rule says that the home city (WBCN) and regional network stations (such as WNSX) within 100 miles of the two competing teams (not like WNSX) shall retain exclusivity for all first-round (wildcard) and second-round games.

The rule further states that the exclusive network (in this case, Westwood One) retains exclusivity for all AFC/NFC championship game and Super Bowl broadcasts except in the home cities of the competing teams, meaning only WBCN listeners in the Boston area can listen to Santos and Cappelletti.

The rule is similar to the one employed by Major League Baseball once playoff action switches to the World Series.

“It’s a terrible rule,” said Red Sox radio announcer Castiglione Wednesday night.

“We still did the games, but only WEEI [850 AM, Boston] listeners could hear us,” said Trupiano, Castiglione’s broadcast partner. “Everybody else heard ESPN Radio because they had exclusive rights.”

In the meantime, the best Patriots Rock Radio Network affiliates can do now is provide WEEI’s extensive pre-game and post-game coverage, but WNSX will not be participating.

“No, we’re not going to do that,” Pierce said. “It’s kind of like being in a candy store, but not being able to eat anything.”

The Super Bowl will be televised live by the Fox Network (locally by Bangor’s WFVX, Channel 22) and will be aired on radio by WZON and on the Internet at zoneradio.com.

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