It’s like having a second radio station without the extra staff, office space, electronic equipment, call letters, and all those pesky extra Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations.

Thanks to the technological advances of the Internet, Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) – the Sports Zone – is now airing live game broadcasts on the Internet, in addition to its regular radio coverage.

“It allows us to do more sports than we’ve ever done,” said WZON program director Dale Duff. “This is actually ahead of the curve. There are other stations that have second audio streams on the Internet, but very few are using them to do two games at once.”

The first broadcast on “The I” was the University of Maine women’s home basketball game against Florida in the championship game of the Dead River Company Classic Nov. 25.

That same night, WZON radio aired a Maine hockey game. UMaine fans could also listen to a Maine men’s basketball game via another Internet broadcast that night through a hyperlink on www.zoneradio.com, WZON’s web site. The broadcast was done by an Alabama radio station in conjunction with broadcastAMERICA.com (also broadcastsports.com).

Duff said WZON will try to make similar arrangements whenever any such conflicts come up again

The I has been used four times, all for University of Maine contests. This weekend marks another first as The I will venture into the arena of high school sports.

“We’ll be up doing the Bangor-Caribou boys game in Caribou on the radio and have the Bangor-Caribou girls game on the Internet. Both games are at 2:30,” said Duff.

The use of The I also makes it possible for the station to air must-carry broadcasts like the Boston Red Sox in the spring and summer and still pay attention to big local sporting events.

“If we have a Red Sox game on in April or May and there’s a big Bangor-Brewer baseball game, we’ll do the Bangor-Brewer game on the I,” Duff explained. “It really enhances our local coverage.”

Duff said right now, the main criteria for deciding which game goes on the radio and which goes on the Internet is fairly simplistic.

“It’s strictly a case-by-case basis,” said Duff. “For the most part, whichever’s the biggest game will be on the radio.”

Eventually, Internet broadcasts will be evaluated in terms of advertising support, but that’s not a consideration at the present time.

“We’ll have to have a certain level of advertising support for it to continue, but we’re not even at the point of evaluating what that level has to be,” Duff explained. “”We have our sales people deciding how best to package and sell it. It’s a work in progress, but we believe it will be worth it.”

Duff said he and other station officials sifted through several suggestions for names before finally settling on “The I.”

“It doesn’t seem like it, but we did spend a lot of time on the name. We went through a lot of them. We talked about WZON2, you know, like ESPN2,” Duff said. “There was another one we liked, which I can’t remember.

“One of the things about WZON2 is we thought some people might be confused and wonder where it was on the radio dial, so we tried to reinforce the fact it’s on the Internet and not on the dial.”

Duff and other station personnel are excited about the prospects and practical applications of The I.

“In the last two years, the number of people who regularly go on-line has tripled according to an article I was reading,” said Duff. “The Minnesota Vikings this year are doing an Internet-only broadcast and I think they’re the first NFL team doing it. It’s separate from their radio coverage.”

WZON’s next Internet broadcast on the I is Friday night. John Bapst-Brewer boys basketball will be on the Internet (7:30 p.m.) while Maine women’s basketball will be on the radio at 7 p.m.