Townsquare Media of Bangor has acquired the radio broadcast rights to University of Maine football and men’s hockey games for a two-year deal, giving it the entire UMaine sports package including the coaches’ shows.
The games and coaches’ shows will be broadcast on The Ticket, WEZQ 92.9 FM. If there is a conflict, WWMJ 95.7 FM can also be used for the games.
Football and hockey games, select basketball games, and the coaches’ shows will also be broadcast on WLOB 1310 AM-FM in Portland.
Townsquare Media landed the rights to carry UMaine men’s and women’s basketball games along with baseball games in 2021 when it signed a three-year contract with Black Bear Sports Properties, a subsidiary of Learfield IMG College.
Learfield IMG College has since been replaced by Van Wagner.
The football and hockey games had been previously broadcast on Blueberry Broadcasting’s WVOM 103.9 FM.
The Ticket 92.9 FM is a sports talk radio station and WWMJ FM is a classic rock station, while WVOM 103.9 FM is a conservative talk station.
“Blueberry Broadcasting has been a great partner for a long time,” said Justin Barnes, general manager for Van Wagner at Maine. “This move is about consolidating our programming onto one station for our fans with a more relevant sports format.”
Barnes said more stations could be added to the Black Bear Sports Network.
“We’re always looking to add stations in markets where we aren’t available,” Barnes said.
The games and coaches’ shows will also be available on goblackbears.com and the Black Bear Nation app.
Bruce Biette, the president and chief operating officer for Blueberry Broadcasting, said “we weren’t able to come to terms and agreed not to renew. We are now looking forward to focusing 100 percent on our WVOM talk programming. Our listeners overwhelmingly tell us that’s what they want to hear.”
The basketball and baseball games had previously been carried on WGUY 96.1 FM, an oldies rock-and-roll station.
The rights to broadcast football and hockey games had been acquired by Clear Channel Communications in 2007 and were carried on WVOM 103.9 FM for one year. The games had previously been carried on WZON 620 AM in Bangor.
Blueberry Broadcasting obtained the Clear Channel stations in 2008 and the games were carried on 97.1 FM until 2011.
That station was a sports talk radio station that was aligned with WEEI-FM in Boston.
WVOM 103.9 FM began carrying the games again in 2011 and has ever since, along with the coaches’ shows.
WEZQ currently carries Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics games. WWMJ 95.7 FM has New England Patriots games.
The Red Sox have exclusivity rights with WEZQ, meaning no Red Sox game can be preempted by a UMaine game.
WWMJ would take the UMaine games if there is a conflict.
