Bangor television station WLBZ (Channel 2) and Portland counterpart WCSH (Ch. 6) won exclusive broadcast rights for the University of Maine women’s early round NCAA Tournament games for the third straight year.

After submitting the high bid to the NCAA among the four stations competing for TV rights, WLBZ-WCSH will air the Black Bears’ first-round game from Raleigh, N.C., Friday at 8 p.m. and – if Maine wins – Sunday at 6:30 p.m.

“I’m excited, I’m a believer in the team, and I’m just thrilled I’m able to have this conversation about us doing it for a third year in a row,” said Mike Marshall, program director at WCSH.

As they have the last four years, WCSH and WLBZ submitted a joint bid. Formerly known as Maine Broadcasting System and owned by Maine Radio and Television Company, both stations were bought by Gannett Broadcasting last January.

Bangor stations WABI (Ch. 5) and WVII (Ch. 7) also submitted bids. WABI broadcast Maine’s first NCAA tourney game in 1995.

Marshall wouldn’t divulge the amount of the bid, but confirmed it was a straight cash-for-rights deal – meaning no creative tradeoffs, promotions, or barter proposals were accepted. The rights fee is believed to be well in the tens of thousands of dollars.

“Right now, it’s certainly not a slam dunk as far as profitablity goes,” Marshall said, pointing to the additional cost of sending eight to 10 people down to do the game, hiring additional people in Raleigh, and renting a production truck.

Some of that cost might be offset if Marshall can find another station covering Youngstown State or Memphis, the two participants in the 6 p.m. contest, that would like to air the game. Since WLBZ-WCSH will be there anyway, broadcasting the first game and earning some extra money from a rights fee would make sense.

“If we can find another market that wants the early game and the sponsors step up, I think we may be able to make a little money on it,” Marshall said. “If not , we’ll be doing it more for the marketing and promotional aspects.”

Those aspects would be non-economic benefits such as exposure that go along with being identified with Maine women’s basketball. WLBZ-WCSH recently aired all of Maine’s conference playoff games for the fourth straight year.

Like last year, the stations are hoping Maine wins because a second-round game between the Maine-N.C. State and Memphis-Youngstown State winners will drastically cut the cost of the broadcast and trip.

Also like last year, Maine’s possible second-round game is one of seven which will be produced and broadcast by the NCAA for use by ESPN and/or ESPN2, which will televise two games on both Friday and Sunday and air live, two-minute “cut-ins” from at least five other games during its broadcasts. Maine’s possible second-round game is one of those cut-ins.

That means that WLBZ and WCSH will still air the second game, but will not produce it.

“Our crew will be going down for a one-shot deal, regardless of whether Maine wins or not,” said Marshall.

After a whirlwind Monday in which stations had to submit bids by 4 p.m. (EST), Marshall was still trying to determine who would be announcing Friday’s game. Regular announcers Lee Goldberg and Maine alum Rachel Bouchard, who is Portland (Ore.) State University’s compliance director, may not be available.

“We called Rachel to see what her availability is but it doesn’t look good right now, and Lee’s wife is expecting a baby so it’s kind of tenuous who we’ll have doing the game right now,” said Marshall.

WLBZ sports director Matt Fine may go in Goldberg’s stead.