WVII, an ABC-affiliate in Bangor, ME, is giving local sports figures, such as the University of Maine men’s hockey coach Tim Whitehead, a shot in front of the camera. Over the summer, WVII plans to have a local athletic luminary anchor the station’s sports coverage once a week.
“Some of them mess up and some do a great job. But it’s all in fun,” WVII news director Cindy Michaels tells the Bangor Daily News.
The program is the brainchild of WVII sports director and sports anchor Brian Sullivan, who joined the station in 2009 and has been working to “build up a rapport” with influential members of the local sports community.
“It gave me a chance to hang out with them for an afternoon and build a rapport with them,” Sullivan said in an interview with the Daily News, recounting how he’s coached local coaches to be better on-camera.
So far, Whitehead and Husson University men’s basketball coach Warren Caruso have appeared during WVII’s 6 p.m. newscast.