The Maine Association of Basketball Coaches has named WHOU.live its ‘Media Award’ winner for 2021, honoring the live-stream company for its coverage of high school basketball. The company is headquartered in Houlton and live-streams sporting events and other community events throughout the state.
Coaches nominate candidates for the award and then the MABC executive committee selects a winner each year. The announcement came Friday night as part of the McDonald’s All Star virtual banquet.
WHOU.live video-streamed over 300 basketball games during the just completed covid season when spectator attendance was limited. Since the fall of 2020, WHOU.live has streamed well over 500 high school events, including, soccer, field hockey, football, cross country, hockey and track & field.
Fred Grant is owner of WHOU.live.
“WHOU has had a long history of covering basketball games for many decades via radio on 100.1fm. In 20011 the station started streaming a few of the basketball games with video coverage to see if there was any community interest. Since that time, WHOU has expanded streaming every year and has grown the staff to accommodate not just basketball but additional sporting, musical, community events, and awards ceremonies. In 2020 WHOU.live was launched as a stand-alone streaming service to accommodate the larger number of broadcasts and added veteran broadcaster, Dale Duff, to the team to spearhead the service and broadcasts in the Bangor region. Led by owner Fred Grant, the broadcasting crew frequently includes veteran announcers Tim Tweedie, Rob Moran, Steve Carmichael, Bobby Russell, Brian McDormand, and Ryan Lincoln. The success and expansion of WHOU.live could not have happened without the guidance of Ian Small, streaming and technical engineer. Ian’s guidance can be seen in all aspects of the broadcasts impacting equipment, infrastructure, graphics and design work.
The full staff required to accommodate production has increased dramatically in 2020 and 2021 and now includes over 25 videographers, 10 producers, multiple technical assistants and full-time staff members, Jamie Cianci and Tim Youngfellow who manage WHOU.live. Leading our videographer staff on a regular basis are standouts Ricky Goupille, Tyler Hewey, Isaac Potter and Ben Grant. Last, but not least a special thanks to the great WHOU sales staff of Gloria Austin, Chris Putnam and Alex Crone.”
* Also winning awards from the MABC Friday night, the annual ‘Contributor Award’ honored longtime Boothbay HS coach IJ Pinkham and the ‘Spirit of the Game’ honored Gemina and Amanda Motema from Portland HS and Donovan Kirk from Nokomis HS.
* Maine’s top basketball awards, the Mr. and Miss Maine Basketball Awards went to Maranacook’s Cash McClure and Kennebunk’s Emily Archibald.