WZON (620 AM) in Bangor debuted a “Hot Stove Session” program Monday night to help hype its first season as the official Boston Red Sox radio station in this area.

Unfortunately, despite a promising start, the “hot stove” talk degenerated into a lot of distracting laughter and bad jokes. Hot stove? This hour-long production was more like a lukewarm burner.

The personalities assembled for this session were sports director Dale Duff, station owners Stephen and Tabitha King, station manager Brent Stephens, and sports announcer Rich Kimball.

The first half hour went fairly well. The panel talked about what other teams have added in the offseason, which teams could be considered favorites, and what Boston’s future looked like.

Panelists also tossed in a few anecdotes and predictions. Here’s a sampling:

“I say Otis Nixon will have 43 steals and a .268 average,” said Duff.

“I’m going to predict that before the season is over, (general manager) Dan Duquette will trade Mike Greenwell,” added Kimball.

“(Mike) Greenwell’s going to hit 25 home runs this year,” said Stephen King.

But despite its solid start, the show earned a “thumbs-down” for the constant joking and laughter by panelists. This laugh-fest proved a distraction to the discussion and often interrupted what started out as several interesting points.

The jokes might have been better appreciated if they had all been about baseball, rather then the Super Bowl and Lorena Bobbitt.

It’s OK, and maybe preferable to have fun with a show like this, but not to the extent that it distracts listeners and panelists alike.

Duff and company may do another show. If they do, here’s hoping they go with more opinions and analysis and less yuks. – – –

The games of the XVII Winter Olympiad are set to dominate the national sports headlines, as well as the programming schedules of CBS network affiliates for the next two weeks.

Bangor’s WABI (Channel 5) will be no exception as the longtime CBS affiliate will air all 120 hours of the network’s Winter Olympic coverage – an average of 7 1/2 hours per day for 16 days.

Greg Gumble will be CBS’ main primetime Olympic TV broadcast host. Gumbel, who has been with CBS Sports 4 1/2 years, will anchor CBS’ 8-11 p.m. coverage slot daily.

CBS has drawn from its broadcast personel reserves across the board, not just sports, in an effort to make the 1994 Winter Games a showcase for the network. Not surprising since CBS paid $543 million for the TV rights to the 1992 and 1994 games.

Andrea Joyce and Jim Nantz, both CBS Sports on-air personalities, will co-host the games on daytime weekend broadcasts.

“CBS This Morning” co-hosts Harry Smith (Joyce’s husband) and Paula Zahn will continue their partnership as co-hosts of the weekday morning Olympic broadcasts (primarily 7-9 a.m.).

Pat O’Brien is the network’s late night man, hosting the Olympic recaps from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m.

During its Olympic coverage, the network is sure to showcast a few video technological advances, possibly the most innovative of which is the goalie-cam.

The goalie-cam is a tiny camera built into the headgear of Team USA’s goaltender (University of Maine players Mike Dunham and Garth Snow) which will provide a unique view of the action on the ice in front of the goal.

Viewers will get their first goalie-cam view as CBS begins hockey coverage Sunday at 2:30 p.m. with a live broadcast of Team USA vs. France. – – –

WABI-TV will offer its traditional high school basketball tournament countdown show Sunday at approximately 6:45 p.m.

Bangor radio station WHCF (88.5 FM) will also air a tourney show Sunday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Both shows will feature coaches from various regions in Eastern Maine and local media personalities discussing the final heal point standings and the tournament pairings.