Sports fans in the Piscataquis County area can rest a little easier. The sale of Dover-Foxcroft radio station WDME – an institution in the local area – shouldn’t drastically alter its emphasis on local programming, especially local sports coverage.

“We’re going to be committed to local sports, local news, and local weather. Those are very important things to us,” said JoAnn Fisher, general sales manager of The Zone Corp. and acting interim station manager at WDME. “You’ll see, really, very few changes from a sports angle from what they’ve done in the past. We’ll have a lot of coverage of Piscataquis County high schools and some upper Penobscot County schools as well.”

The sale of WDME (103.1 FM) became official March 1 when The Zone Corp., owned by Bangor authors Stephen and Tabitha King, took over ownership from Mid-Maine Media Inc. Federal Communications Commission approval came Feb. 16.

The Zone Corp. also owns Bangor all-sports station WZON (620 AM) and Bangor rock station WKIT (100.3 FM).

“I think there were also a lot of people who were worried that we were gonna change it to a sports station altogether because we own WZON, but that’s not the case,” said Fisher. “Sports coverage will be very similar to what they’ve done in the past.”

Although the sale caused an initial snag, WDME has also renewed its contract to carry all Boston Red Sox game broadcasts, a popular programming staple at the station for almost two decades.

“There was just a glitch with the contract because the prior owners hadn’t signed off on it before we took over,” Fisher explained.

The new owners are currently conducting a survey, published in Piscataquis County newspapers, to better gauge what WDME listeners prefer listening to.

“We’re just trying to see what people really want, and I’m sure local sports will be a part of that mix,” Fisher said. “We’re really so new to this, we have to see what the market’s going to bear.”WDME aired approximately 60 high school sports contests last year, including football, soccer, basketball, and hockey.

“We’re projecting we’ll have the survey results compiled in about two weeks and the programming decisions will take a little longer than that,” Fisher said.

Fisher was unsure what the status of current or recent WDME employees was, but longtime station personality and manager Mark Young is currently handling day-to-day operations.

Sea Dogs set sail on TV, radio

Weather permitting, the Portland Sea Dogs, the Florida Marlins’ Double A affiliate, will begin the 2001 season Friday at 6 p.m. For those unprepared to brave cold and iffy weather conditions, the game will air on one television and six radio stations.

Friday’s game is the first of six live telecasts scheduled by Portland ABC network TV affiliate WMTW (Channel 8). All 142 games will air on the Sea Dogs radio network: Rockland’s WRKD (1450 AM), Norway’s WOXO (92.7 FM), Mexico’s WTBM (100.7 FM), South Paris’ WKTQ (1450 AM), Lewiston’s WTME (1240 AM), and Portland’s WZAN (970 AM).

PawSox, NESN together again

New England Sports Network will broadcast the first of 10 live Pawtucket Red Sox games Monday as the Red Sox host Montreal Triple A affiliate Ottawa at 6 p.m. The number of games in NESN’s PawSox package is down one from last year, but the announcing team remains the same as (Boston) Red Sox Digest host Bob Rodgers (play-by-play) and former Boston Red Sox great and PawSox manager Rico Petrocelli (color analyst) team up for their second season together. This is NESN’s 13th season of live Pawtucket baseball coverage. More than 180 Pawtucket games have been aired on the regional sports channel since 1988.