The King Curse: Since Leaving WZON, UMaine Black Bears Haven’t Had Much Success.
Could a Stephen King hex be preventing the UMaine hockey team from achieving any success since the team abruptly broke off its relationship with the King-owned WZON Bangor? Fifteen years
This month marks a dark anniversary in the history of the University of Maine hockey program, which back in 2007 decided to abruptly end its relationship with a locally-owned Bangor radio station to sign a lucrative deal with Learfield who shopped the broadcast rights to a new radio station.
While it’s not unusual for a university to shop around for the best broadcast deal to ensure the stability of its programs, UMaine had a longstanding relationship with WZON Bangor (620), which happens to be owned by one of its most successful and famous alumnus – Stephen King.
The story, as recounted by former WZON afternoon host Jeff Solari for the Bangor Daily News, is that the University provided no notice to King and his wife, and station co-owner Tabitha.
“I will tell you Dale Duff, General Manager Bobby Russell and everyone at Zone Corp. never thought this would happen,” Solari writes. “One morning we got the news. After a decade of broadcasting hundreds of UMaine games, the plug was being pulled.”