'Victim of the economy and the times'

The sagging economy has led to two blackouts of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers exhibition football games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

The lackluster local economy claimed another victim Thursday afternoon.

According WWJB (AM) 1450 and WXJB (FM) 99.9 General Manager Steve Manuel, the Brooksville radio stations will not be airing a long-time staple, live high school football coverage, this season.

"I agonized over this quite a bit," said Manuel Thursday afternoon. "We waited until the absolute last minute to see if we could put this together; but it wasn't possible.

"It's not inexpensive to do the games," added Manuel, who's been associated with Brooksville Broadcasting Company since 1982. "I think football is important to the kids and to the community. We tried hard to sell it, but we fell victim to the economy and the times."

Manuel has not closed the door at bringing back high school football broadcasts in the future.

"I didn't like that we couldn't work this out," said Manuel. "We'll work it out (bringing back the broadcasts) if and when we can."