1.
Bangor, Maine
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Bangor is a city along the Penobscot River in the U. S. state of Maine. The city proper has a population of 33,039, while the Bangor metropolitan area has a population of 153,746, Bangor is known as the Queen City of Maine. Modern Bangor was established by European Americans in the mid-1800s, based on the lumber, with their wealth, the lumber barons built elaborate Greek Revival and Victorian mansions and the 31 feet high statue of Paul Bunyan. Today, Bangors economy is based on services and retail, healthcare, founded as Condeskeag Plantation, Bangor was incorporated as a New England town in 1791, after the end of the American Revolutionary War. There are more than 20 communities worldwide named Bangor, of which 15 are in the United States and named after Bangor, the final syllable is pronounced gor, not ger. Bangor has a port of entry at Bangor International Airport, also home to the Bangor Air National Guard Base, Historically Bangor was an important stopover on the great circle air route between the East Coast of the United States and Europe. Bangors Police Department also has a popular Facebook page, which uses humor and advice in an attempt to better public police relations, Bangor has a humid continental climate, with cold, snowy winters, and warm summers. The Penobscot have inhabited the area around present-day Bangor for at least 11,000 years and they practiced some agriculture, but less than peoples in southern New England where the climate is milder, and subsisted on what they could hunt and gather. Contact with Europeans was not uncommon during the 1500s because the fur trade was lucrative, the site was visited by Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes in 1524 and by Samuel de Champlain in 1605. In 1769 Jacob Buswell founded a settlement at the site, by 1772, there were 12 families, along with a sawmill, store, and school, and in 1787 the population was 567. In September 1787 a petition, signed by 19 residents, was sent to the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting that this area be named Sunbury. On the back of it was written, To the care of Dr. Cony and this petition was rejected before 6 October 1788, as the town referred to itself as Penobscot River, west side. In 1779, the rebel Penobscot Expedition fled up the Penobscot River, the ships remained there until the late 1950s, when construction of the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge disturbed the site. Six cannons were removed from the riverbed, five of which are on display throughout the region and he left the name for the town blank so he could obtain tentative approval. He chose the name of a popular hymn known to be a favorite of Governor John Hancock, the incorporation was received on 25 February 1791 and was signed by John Hancock. During the War of 1812, Bangor and Hampden were looted by the British, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from the state and was admitted to the Union under the Missouri Compromise as the 23rd state. Bangor was near the lands disputed during the Aroostook War, a dispute with Britain in 1838–39. The passion of the Aroostook War signaled the increasing role lumbering and logging were playing in the Maine economy, particularly in the central, Bangor arose as a lumbering boom-town in the 1830s, and a potential demographic and political rival to Portland, Maine
2.
Sports commentator
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In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action, in the case of television commentary, the commentators are on screen rarely if at all during the event. The main commentator, also called the play-by-play announcer or commentator in North America and they are valued for their articulateness and for their ability to describe each play or event of an often fast-moving sporting event. Other main commentators may, however, only one sport. The analyst or color commentator provides expert analysis and background information, such as statistics, strategy on the teams and athletes and they are usually former athletes or coaches in their respective sports, although there are some exceptions. The term color refers to levity and insight provided by analyst, the most common format for a sports broadcast is to have an analyst/color commentator work alongside the main/play-by-play announcer. Vin Scully, longtime announcer for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, is one of few examples of this practice still existing today, a sideline reporter assists a sports broadcasting crew with sideline coverage of the playing field or court. Sideline reporters are often granted inside information about an important update, such as injury, in cases of big events, teams consisting of many sideline reporters are placed strategically so that the main commentator has many sources to turn to. In British sports broadcasting, the presenter of a sports broadcast is usually distinct from the commentator, in North America, the on-air personality based in the studio is called the studio host. During their shows, the presenter/studio host may be joined by analysts or pundits. In North American English, sportscaster is a term for any type of commentator in a sports broadcast. It may also refer to a talk show host or a newscaster covering sports news. In 1975, the National Hockey League made headlines when two coaches from the N. H. L, all-Star Game in Montreal allowed Robin Herman and Marcel St. Cyr. access into the mens locker room. Both were believed to have been the first women allowed to enter a professional mens locker room to conduct a post-game interview. Sport organizations began to follow in the N. H. L. s footsteps, Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn and other officials chose to discriminate her based on her sex. Knowing that this would put Sports Illustrated in a disadvantage from other publishers, Time Inc. and Ludtke filed a lawsuit against Kuhn. The lawsuit was taken to the U. S. District Court in 1978 where Judge Constance Baker Motley ruled the act as violating the 14th amendment of the U. S. Constitution. The court ruled that the Yankees organization devise a plan to protect the players of their privacy while female sportswriters conducted interviews, society viewed the issue as women sportswriters only wanting access to the mens locker room to see players naked
3.
MASN
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Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between two Major League Baseball franchises, the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals. Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, the channel broadcasts coverage of sports events in the Baltimore-Washington. When the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, D. C. in 2004 as the Nationals, since at least 1981, Major League Baseball had designated the Orioles television territory as extending from Harrisburg to Charlotte. Major League Baseball paid the Orioles $75 million for a 10% stake in MASN, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network launched on April 4,2005. The family of Lerner Enterprises founder Ted Lerner subsequently became part-owners in MASN after their purchase of the Washington Nationals in July 2006, as part of the deal, the Nationals stake in the network would increase to 33% over 23 years. Under the current arrangement, MASN paid the Nationals $20 million to broadcast their games in 2005 and it has become a strong competitor to the areas dominant regional sports network, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. As a whole, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network televises more than 600 professional, each team is represented by an analyst and two sideline reporters for their respective telecasts, with play-by-play announcers each broadcasting for half of the game. As of 2014, MASN and sister network MASN2 each maintain separate streams for both teams during the Beltway Series, mASNs broadcasting relationship with the Ravens ended after the 2009 NFL season. The network televises 275 collegiate sporting events each year from NCAA Division I teams in football, basketball and lacrosse. In 2010, MASN relaunched The John Riggins Show, a sports talk show hosted by the Washington Redskins hall of famer. In addition to a drive program, Riggins hosted Riggos Postgame Xtra. The network also has a companion channel MASN2 that airs overflow games in order to accommodate both teams schedules. MASN announced that it would launch a full-time HD feed on September 16,2008, since 2010, MASN and MASN2 have televised every Orioles and Nationals game not aired on national television in high definition. After the Orioles agreed to share their territory with the Nationals. Because of this, the Orioles and MASN claimed to be bringing their rights in-house. Comcast filed a complaint and on October 5, Judge Thompson threw out Comcasts second effort. Up to that point, Comcast was the major cable carrier that refused to carry MASN. On August 4,2006, following a settlement, it was announced that Comcast would carry MASN starting that September, Comcast was forced to drop its lawsuit under the terms of the deal
4.
ESPN
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ESPN is a U. S. -based global cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc. a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Corporation. ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut, the network also operates offices in Miami, New York City, Seattle, Charlotte, and Los Angeles. John Skipper currently serves as president of ESPN, a position he has held since January 1,2012, as of February 2015, ESPN is available to approximately 94,396,000 paid television households in the United States. In 2011, ESPNs history and rise was chronicled by These Guys Have All the Fun, Bill Rasmussen conceived the concept of ESPN in late May 1978, after he was fired from his job with the World Hockey Associations New England Whalers. One of the first steps in Bill and his son Scotts process was finding land to build the channels broadcasting facilities, the Rasmussens first rented office space in Plainville, Connecticut. However, the plan to base ESPN there was put on hold because a local ordinance prohibiting buildings from bearing rooftop satellite dishes and this helped the credibility of the fledgling company, however there were still many doubters to the viability of their sports channel concept. ESPN launched on September 7,1979, beginning with the first telecast of what would become the flagship program. Taped in front of a live audience inside the Bristol studios. ESPNs next big break came when the acquired the rights to broadcast coverage of the early rounds of the NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Tournament. It first aired the NCAA tournament in March 1980, creating the modern day television event known as March Madness. The channels tournament coverage also launched the career of Dick Vitale. In April of that year, ESPN created another made-for-TV spectacle, the next major stepping stone for ESPN came over the course of a couple of months in 1984. During this time period, the American Broadcasting Company purchased 100% of ESPN from the Rasmussens, for years, the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball refused to consider cable as a means of broadcasting some of their games. However, with the backing of ABC, ESPNs ability to compete for major sports contracts greatly increased, later in 1984, the U. S. ESPNs Sunday Night Football games would become the highest-rated NFL telecasts for the next 17 years. In 1992, ESPN launched ESPN Radio, a sports talk radio network providing analysis. It became the fastest growing cable channel in the U. S. during the 1990s, ownership of ABC, and in effect control of ESPN, was acquired first by Capital Cities Communications in 1985, and then by The Walt Disney Company in 1996. In 2012, ESPN generated more revenue for Disney than any of its other properties combined, alongside its live sports broadcasts, ESPN also airs a variety of sports highlight, talk, and documentary-styled shows. 30 for 30 started airing in 2009 and continues airing to this day, each episode is through the eyes of a well known filmmaker and has featured some of the biggest directors in Hollywood
5.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
6.
National Hockey League
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Headquartered in New York City, the NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the playoff champion at the end of each season. At its inception, the NHL had four teams—all in Canada, the league expanded to the United States in 1924, when the Boston Bruins joined, and has since consisted of American and Canadian teams. After a labour-management dispute that led to the cancellation of the entire 2004–05 season, in 2009, the NHL enjoyed record highs in terms of sponsorships, attendance, and television audiences. The league draws many highly skilled players from all over the world, canadians have historically constituted the majority of the players in the league, with an increasing percentage of American and European players in recent seasons. The National Hockey League was established in 1917 as the successor to the National Hockey Association, founded in 1909, the NHA began play one year later with seven teams in Ontario and Quebec, and was one of the first major leagues in professional ice hockey. Realizing the NHA constitution left them unable to force Livingstone out, the four teams voted instead to suspend the NHA, frank Calder was chosen as its first president, serving until his death in 1943. The Bulldogs were unable to play, and the remaining owners created a new team in Toronto, the first games were played on December 19,1917. The Montreal Arena burned down in January 1918, causing the Wanderers to cease operations, the NHL replaced the NHA as one of the leagues that competed for the Stanley Cup, which was an interleague competition back then. Toronto won the first NHL title, and then defeated the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association for the 1918 Stanley Cup. The Canadiens won the title in 1919, however their Stanley Cup Final against the PCHAs Seattle Metropolitans was abandoned as a result of the Spanish Flu epidemic. Montreal in 1924 won their first Stanley Cup as a member of the NHL, the Hamilton Tigers, won the regular season title in 1924–25 but refused to play in the championship series unless they were given a C$200 bonus. The league refused and declared the Canadiens the league champion after defeated the Toronto St. Patricks in the semi-final. Montreal was then defeated by the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League for the 1925 Stanley Cup and it was the last time a non-NHL team won the trophy, as the Stanley Cup became the de facto NHL championship in 1926 after the WCHL ceased operation. The National Hockey League embarked on rapid expansion in the 1920s, adding the Montreal Maroons, the Bruins were the first American team in the league. The New York Americans began play in 1925 after purchasing the assets of the Hamilton Tigers, the New York Rangers were added in 1926. The Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Cougars were also added after the league purchased the assets of the defunct WCHL, a group purchased the Toronto St. Patricks in 1927 and immediately renamed them the Maple Leafs. The first NHL All-Star Game was held in 1934 to benefit Ace Bailey, the second was held in 1937 in support of Howie Morenzs family when he died of a coronary embolism after breaking his leg during a game
7.
Major League Baseball
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Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams now play in the National League and American League, the NL and AL operated as separate legal entities from 1876 and 1901 respectively. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, the merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000. The organization also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises about 240 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs, with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Baseballs first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869,30 years after Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game of baseball, the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era, Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression, shortly after the war, baseballs color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. The 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL, then new stadiums, Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, and media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, today, MLB is composed of thirty teams, twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada. Baseball broadcasts are aired on television, radio, and the Internet throughout North America, MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in 2015. MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution and this document has undergone several incarnations since 1875, with the most recent revisions being made in 2012. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sports umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years, the weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLBs primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal League in 1916, the last attempt at a new league was the aborted Continental League in 1960. The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, Rob Manfred, the chief operating officer is Tony Petitti. There are five other executives, president, chief officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer. The multimedia branch of MLB, which is based in Manhattan, is MLB Advanced Media and this branch oversees MLB. com and each of the 30 teams websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media
8.
College football
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It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. No minor league farm organizations exist in American football and it is in college football where a players performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition. Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as a free agent. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League, college football remained extremely popular throughout the U. S, in many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium. College athletes, unlike players in the NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as football, by the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges, the first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9,1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional mob football played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football, Princeton University students played a game called ballown as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as Bloody Monday began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes, in 1860, both the town police and the college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. The Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a figure called Football Fightum. The authorities held firm and it was a dozen years before football was again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called Old division football, the rules of which were first published in 1871, all of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities
9.
NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship
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The NCAA Division II Mens Ice Hockey Championship was held from 1978 to 1982 and from 1993 to 1999, but it was discontinued due to a lack of Division II conferences sponsoring ice hockey. The final two rounds of the tournament were first referred to as the Frozen Four in 1999. The NCAA started a Womens Frozen Four beginning with the 2000-01 season, the Hobey Baker Award ceremony, Hockey Humanitarian Award ceremony, and USCHO. com Town Hall Meeting take place annually during Frozen Four weekend. List of NCAA Mens Division I Frozen Four appearances by school National Collegiate Womens Ice Hockey Championship
10.
WWE
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Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. was an American professional wrestling promotion and the sanctioning body for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and later World Wrestling Federation. Founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1953, Capitol Wrestling Corporation is the precursor to todays WWE, run by Jess grandson, Jess McMahon was a successful boxing promoter who began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing at the third Madison Square Garden, a few years prior, professional wrestler Toots Mondt had created a new challenge of professional wrestling that he called “Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling”. He convinced wrestler Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow to implement this new solution, after much success, a disagreement over power caused the trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt later formed partnerships with other promoters, including Jack Curley in New York City. Mondt eventually took over the New York wrestling scene, due to the fact Curley was dying, with the aid of several bookers, together, McMahon and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. which later joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953. In November 1954, Jess McMahon died and Ray Fabiani, one of Mondts associates, both men left the company in protest following the incident and formed the WWWF in the process, awarding Rogers the new WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in April of that year. He lost the championship to Bruno Sammartino a month later on May 17,1963, after gaining a television program deal and turning preliminary wrestler Lou Albano as a manager for Sammartinos heel opponents, the WWWF was doing sell out business by 1970. Mondt left the company in the late 1960s and although the WWWF had withdrawn from the NWA, Vince McMahon, at the annual meeting of the NWA in 1983, the McMahons and WWF employee Jim Barnett all withdrew from the organization. By March 1979, for marketing purposes, the World Wide Wrestling Federation was renamed the World Wrestling Federation and that same year, Vincent J. McMahons son, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. incorporated on February 21,1980, originally in Massachusetts. In 1982, Titan Sports Inc. acquired Capitols operations, effectively relocating its headquarters to Greenwich, in an attempt to make the WWF the premier wrestling promotion in the world, McMahon began an expansion that fundamentally changed the industry. In the end, the elder McMahon would never live to see his company grow from a promotion to what is now a worldwide organization. He died from cancer at 69 years old on May 24,1984. By 1985, Titan moved to Stamford, Connecticut then establishing a new entity in 1987 in Delaware which later merged with the old company in 1988. Titan later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, list of independent wrestling promotions in the United States
