Just four months after arriving in the Bangor area, WVII sports director Mike Avery and WABI sports reporter Jennifer Blossom have already left or are on their way out of the market.

Avery will be leaving his job at the Bangor ABC affiliate later this month for “family reasons.” The 31-year-old sports anchor at Channel 7 replaced Chuck Whitney in October.

“I’m getting out of the business and moving back south to Louisiana,” explained Avery, whose wife Wendy and 2-year-old son Hagan are living in the Shreveport area.

Avery said he doesn’t have anything lined up, employment-wise, at the moment.

“I have some different leads on things, but I’m not getting into anything specific right now,” Avery said.

Avery said he enjoyed his brief stint in Bangor. The atmosphere made an impression on him that he says he’ll never forget.

It’s been an awesome experience up here with Maine hockey and high school sports,” he said. “It’s quite an amazing thing being at the high school basketball tournament. I’d heard about it, but I was still quite surprised how intense it was.”

Avery said his last day with the station hasn’t been set. He’ll likely remain for another two weeks, but has the flexibility to stay longer if needed.

“I think [assistant sports director] Nate Long has put his name in the hat,” said WVII general manager Mitch Lambert. “He’s done a very good job for us and he’s very competent, but it’s still early in the process. We’d like to have someone in place the next two weeks.”

Blossom is no longer working for Bangor’s CBS affiliate (Ch. 5). News director Jim Morris said Blossom’s contract expired Feb. 28 and was not renewed. The best way to describe the position right now is that it’s in flux.

“We added that position a couple years ago and right now, we’re keeping our options open,” Morris said. “We’re assessing what we can do with it.”

Blossom came to Bangor in November from Philadelphia, where she grew up. Prior to WABI, she worked at Philly’s WKYW for a year and KCAL in Los Angeles for three years.

He’s going to Disney World

Self-professed Boston Red Sox and baseball fanatic Jim Churchill will take his family along with him for a working vacation in the Sunshine State.

Churchill will be a one-man broadcast crew for Bangor all-sports radio station WZON on at least eight live broadcasts of University of Maine baseball as the Black Bears make their southern swing.

“I’m really looking forward to this,” said the Hampden resident. “I leave Wednesday morning and I’ll do my first game that night.”

Churchill has been a sportscaster at the station for the last six years and hosts a weekly segment on the Red Sox during Dale Duff’s morning show.

Duff said they may be able to do a ninth game as well, depending on the schedule. Most of the games are at night and all take place in the northern part of the state, which could put a severe crimp in Churcill’s Red Sox Grapefruit League game-watching plans.

“Maine’s playing up north in Daytona, Gainesville, and Tallahassee and the Red Sox really aren’t anywhere near there,” Duff said. “There might be one date he’ll have a chance to catch them, but he’ll have to do some travelling.”

Although Churchill will do most of the games solo, he’s hoping to be joined by a sports information official from some of the schools Maine plays and/or Maine pitchers from the previous day’s game for a few innings.

“They might be able to sit in, but we’re not sure yet,” Churchill said.

Duff said the University of Maine’s decision to move the March spring break vacation a week later is a break for WZON.

“It helps us because with Maine hockey, Maine basketball playoffs, and tournament coverage going on the last two weeks, we can squeeze in baseball easier,” Duff explained.