March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

WABI won’t air Legion tourney

The ongoing construction at Goodall Park in Sanford, the site of the upcoming American Legion State Tournament, has taken a wrecking ball to the broadcast plans of Bangor radio station WABI (910 AM).

Bangor all-sports station WZON (620 AM) won’t decide what tourney coverage, if any, it will provide until Thursday afternoon.

Both WABI and WZON broadcast American Legion baseball games all summer.

“We did more Legion coverage this year than has been done before with 20 regular season games and all of the Zone [1] tournament,” said WABI station manager George Hale. “I’m very disappointed. We did it for the first time last year and planned to do it again this year, but it just didn’t work out.”

Hale explained that he intended to air each game involving Orono, one of four Greater Bangor teams (along with Bangor, Brewer and Hermon) WABI covers, but had to change plans after he couldn’t get the assurances he needed on the various elements he requested to be able to broadcast games.

“We gave them until this morning to give me some information on the facilities, and when I didn’t hear from anyone today, we decided to pull out. I’m not blaming anyone over there, but I couldn’t get the information I needed and I just didn’t have any time left to wait because we needed to make plans and set up lodging, equipment and people to do the games.”

Further complicating things was Hale’s need to schedule people for coverage of the Bangor State Fair, which begins Friday.

Meanwhile, WZON is in a holding pattern since officials there were told earlier this week to call back to find out the status of the park, which has been under construction for about a year.

“I hope WZON or someone does do it,” said Hale. “It would be a shame not to have the games on.”

Both WZON program director Dale Duff and announcer Dan Hannigan aren’t sure what to believe.

“I don’t know what to say because we haven’t heard anything from them and they told us to call back on Thursday,” Duff said.

Duff said one Legion official described the current field situation as follows: from dugout to dugout, and from both dugouts to behind home plate, it’s a roped-off construction area.

“There’s going to be power and they’ve made provisions for the radio stations to broadcast from on top of the first base dugout and underneath the grandstand,” said American Legion state field director Bob Philbrick. “They just got the lights up yesterday and they’ve brought in temporary power lines to use during the tournament.”

WZON will air the 50th annual Jimmy Fund Radiothon and Auction Monday from 7 a.m. to noon.

This is the fourth year the Sports Zone has participated in the benefit fundraiser for the Boston Red Sox’ official charity.

Some of the items up for bids include a Red Sox cap autographed by 1997 American League rookie of the year Nomar Garciaparra, a trip to Fenway Park for four that includes tickets to Boston’s final home game Sept. 27 plus a tour of the Diamond Club and press box, baseballs autographed by Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens, and an autographed door panel and dented side panel from one of Andy Santerre’s race cars.

Maine basketball fans can catch Cindy Blodgett – provided she’s allowed off the bench for a significant amount of time – and her Cleveland Rockers on television this weekend. Bangor TV station WLBZ (Channel 2) will air NBC’s telecast of the Cleveland-Houston WNBA game Saturday at 4 p.m.


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