When Bangor television station WABI (Channel 5) first aired University of Maine sportscasts more than 50 years ago, it was seen as a public service.

Advertisers weren’t exactly lining up to sponsor the broadcasts and viewer interest, although evident, wasn’t necessarily strong.

The popularity of UMaine sports telecasts rose and fell with the fortunes of the teams, but the overall trend was up over the years until it nearly hit bottom in the early 1990s when only one station (WABI) submitted a bid for exclusive TV rights.

Fourteen years later, Black Bear sports popularity on TV has soared – arguably to an all-time high – as viewers back up their fervent support for UM sports broadcasts with solid ratings numbers.

Due largely to the success of Maine’s hockey and women’s basketball programs over the last decade and more recently the football team, UM sportscasts have gone from convenient ways to occasionally fill out the weekend TV schedule and publicize Maine’s largest land grant university to bona fide ratings successes.

“I think it goes back probably to the years when hockey first started and it became a darling for the community, but the biggest days we saw were when they were on Maine Broadcasting System [Bangor station WLBZ and Portland’s WCSH] on Saturday nights with double-digit demographic ratings in the early-to-mid ’90s,” said WABI program director Steve Hilts. “We got back into Maine telecasts with women’s basketball right around 1997 and then when [MBS] gave up the hockey contract, we got back in and then added football and basketball.”

WABI’s decision to commit some green to Black Bears programming has station officials tickled pink.

The numbers tell the story.

WABI’s two live Friday night broadcasts of UM hockey games in November (vs. Boston College Nov. 5 and Massachusetts Nov. 19) delivered eye-opening Nielsen numbers.

“The BC one was huge,” said Hilts. “As a household rating, Maine-BC at 7 p.m. had a 13 and that held up pretty well through the night until about 9 p.m. or so. The UMass game started out around a 5, grew to a 6 about an hour or so later, and the average of both games was a 9 rating and an 18 share.”

A rating is the percentage of total households in the market turned to a specific program and the share is the percentage of viewers watching a particular program at a certain time.

For a typical Friday night in Bangor’s TV market, Hilts said he’s happy with an 8 or 9 rating and a 17-18 share for any kind of programming.

Not only is Maine hockey viable as a programming staple, it delivers viewers very similar demographically to those most stations and networks are trying to draw with prime-time programming.

Compare the Nov. 5 UMaine hockey telecast with an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” a consistent top-20 program in the ratings: From 7 to 7:30 p.m., it matched “Raymond” in adults ages 18-49 (5 vs. 5); for ages 18-34, the numbers were a 4 for hockey and 1 for “Raymond,” and with women it was 7 vs. 1 in favor of hockey for ages 18-34 and 5 vs. 5 for ages 18-49.

“Ray was a very strong show, so for hockey to come in as strong as Ray says we’re doing the right thing because people certainly seem to have enough interest in it,” Hilts said.

From 8 to 9 p.m., WABI’s rating among ages 18-34 was 4 for hockey and 2 for Joan of Arcadia, 4 to 1 in hockey’s favor for ages 18-49. From 9 to 10 p.m. the numbers were hockey 3 and “JAG” 1 for ages 18-34 and hockey 3 and “JAG” 5 for ages 18-49.

Football kicked itself up to another solid ratings performer last year. WABI’s telecast of a 1 p.m. UM-Hofstra game Nov. 6 drew a 3 rating and 18 share.

“That is absolutely amazing for a Saturday afternoon for us,” Hilts said. “The Miami 300 [auto race] on Channel 2 [WLBZ] was less than a 1 rating and the ABC college football game [on WVII] was less than a 1. Football’s growth has been phenomenal as the team continues its success.”

The rating grew to 6 after 2 p.m. (“This Old House” on public television’s WMEB was the next highest with a 3). Only “The Lawrence Welk Show” was able to sack Maine as a rerun of the long-running program drew a 5 to football’s 3 at 5 p.m.

Two weeks later, the numbers were down somewhat as the Maine-New Hampshire football broadcast drew a 3 with WLBZ’s broadcast of the Phoenix 200 auto race getting a 7.

Still, it’s no wonder WABI has already picked up both option years on its exclusive contract with UMaine, which now runs through the 2006-07 academic year.

Out of the lineup

Longtime Boston Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione has not been in the broadcast booth for three games this week due to the death of his mother-in-law. Various Red Sox officials and guests have subbed in for Castiglione, who has held the job for 14 years, the last eight with Red Sox radio partner Jerry Trupiano. Castiglione is expected back behind the microphone Friday night.

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